The Recurring Nytdmare
by Nytd
Summary: Another Mainely Hogwarts Tale. Part Three of the Wandless Magic Trilogy.
1. Default Chapter

The Recurring Nytdmare  
  
Another Mainely Hogwarts Story.  
  
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So.....here you all are again?  
  
I suppose most of you are here because you cannot get enough of all the stories out there about.....Potter.  
  
And I suppose that I, Professor Severus Snape, after having dealt with Mr. Potter for the past five long years, should not be surprised that a bunch of muggles such as yourselves would be easily impressed by the wonder wizard's illicit adventures, and habitual rule-breaking.  
  
Well, then, if that's what you are looking for, read on....but let me give you fair warning. These chapters hold not only the sixth year escapades of three most troublesome Gryffindors, but accounts of the daily lives and adventures of model student, Draco Malfoy......  
  
Severus?  
  
Yes, Nytd?  
  
I wouldn't really call Draco a model student after the whole party incident.  
  
One tiny infraction and you condemn a fellow Slytherin....  
  
Tiny? I'd hardly call a hundred mangabeys tiny, Severus.  
  
May I continue?  
  
Certainly.  
  
The writings within document the lives of Marlina Perkins, Care of Magical Creatures Professor at Hogwarts, and her annoying little brat of a son, Noah....  
  
Severus?  
  
What?  
  
Most people find Noah absolutely adorable.  
  
*rolls eyes* Fine. And the (urgh) adorable Noah.  
  
Better.  
  
May I go on?  
  
Please do, Severus.  
  
Of course, by now most of you are aware of her *shudders* romance with that werewolf, Remus Lupin, the passable DADA teacher.....  
  
Severus, Remus is an outstanding teacher.  
  
If you say so.  
  
I do, and it's my story.  
  
Fine. *clenches teeth* May I finish MY introduction?  
  
By all means.  
  
Where was I? Oh, yes - More adventure and romance for Kaneene Moody, who's really not so bad for an Auror, even if she does hand around with that.....*mutters something unintelligible*....Sirius Black.....  
  
I heard that.  
  
Do you mind? *glares and waits* Ahem, and her kid brother Keath, who's still trying to get under the robes of that Granger girl and.....  
  
Severus!  
  
Well, he IS! Merlin's wand! Why did I ever agree to do this?  
  
*Sirius pokes head into room* Probably because you're still trying to get under Nytd's.....  
  
That's enough of that, Padfoot!  
  
*Sirius and Remus can be heard laughing outside the doorway.*  
  
I can't do this with all that racket!  
  
Yes, you can. Please finish the introduction, Severus.....for me?  
  
Oh, all right. Anyway, more from the lovely Mistress Lorien, the Red Witch, consummate Potions Mistress; Perth Taber, Ariel Sinistra, that *mutters something else*, Death Eaters, Voldemort......*pauses, frowns and looks at Nytd*.... Must we?  
  
Yes, Severus. It's tradition. All good Harry Potter fanfic stories usually include him.  
  
And do all good Harry Potter fanfic authors usually have cappuccino with the Dark Lord?  
  
*looks a bit sheepish* I suppose not.  
  
Hmph. And are all fanfic authors SAVED by a certain Potions Master?  
  
Well, er.....no, I guess not.  
  
Yes, well, if they were, I bet they would have thanked him properly.  
  
I thanked you profusely, Severus.  
  
*drops voice dangerously* I said....properly.  
  
Which would mean? *narrows eyes suspiciously*  
  
Huh! Read your own chapter on thanking one's champion.  
  
Severus!  
  
Oh, don't go looking so shocked. You're the one that wrote the bloody thing!  
  
Look, we'll discuss this later.  
  
*raises one eyebrow* Is that a promise?  
  
You're very wicked Severus, did you know that?  
  
That, my dear, is what you love about me. *turns and exits with signature sweep of dark robes*  
  
Welcome back old friends, and welcome as well to any of you new readers that stumbled upon the Wandless Magic Trilogy. I didn't want to say anything while Severus was here, Merlin knows his ego is big enough, but there's a fair bit about our favorite Potions Master ahead too. Hope you all enjoy the third installment. Read on and have fun!  
  
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Return to Hogwarts: Year Six ~*~  
  
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It seemed very strange to Hermione and Ron when they boarded the Hogwarts Express on September first, and found themselves sitting together in the last car without Harry.  
  
Of course they were happy, in a way, that he wasn't there. It meant that he hadn't had to spend his entire summer at the Dursley's, and that he was spending the last part of his summer holiday studying Nemorosi magic and catching up on time long lost with his godfather, Sirius Black.  
  
They knew this already because it had been the first summer that the three of them could freely send each other owls on a regular basis, and Harry had made it a point to update them regularly on his progress.  
  
They'd also had a chance to visit Harry for a few days at the end of July to hear in person about the strides he was making. Ron had little idea of what Harry was talking about half the time, and Hermione had found it maddening to not be able to rush to the library to look up the spells that Harry wrote them about, but now as they chatted on the train, they both agree on one thing; Harry seemed happy.  
  
"About time," Ron observed, watching Pig do corkscrews and loop-the-loops around the car with excitement over the journey. "He deserves a bit of happiness after what he's been through."  
  
"I'll say," agreed Hermione. She and Crookshanks, who had assumed the contented feline 'loaf-of-bread' position on her lap, were both watching the hyper little feathered monster with faint interest. A thought struck her, and she looked back at Ron and grinned before she could even speak again.  
  
"So, how is Percy getting along?" she asked. Mrs. Weasley had already told her, quite excitedly, in Diagon Alley, that Percy and his long-time girlfriend were engaged.  
  
Ron groaned and let his head fall back against the seat.  
  
"You have no idea," he wailed. "Percy's been downright impossible since Penelope said yes. They talk for HOURS about the stupidest stuff. You just wouldn't believe what goes into planning a wedding, 'Mione."  
  
Hermione gave him a pointed look.  
  
"Well, ok, you might," Ron admitted, "I mean, you are a witch."  
  
"Just what is that supposed to mean, Ron Weasley?" Hermione asked in a stern way, but a half-smile was still on her lips.  
  
"Well, you know - witches always know more about that stuff," replied Ron, not realizing he was possibly getting himself into trouble.  
  
Hermione's brow lifted. "That stuff?"  
  
"Yeah." Ron busied himself looking around the car for Pig. "Engagements and, er..weddings and things."  
  
Hermione's brow crept a notch higher. "Things?" She was beginning to smile again at watching Ron squirm a little.  
  
"Oh, get off it, Hermione! You know what I mean. Women always know a lot more about, well....woman stuff."  
  
A slightly older wizard would have recognized that he'd put his foot in his mouth the moment it happened, but Ron didn't - at least not for a few seconds.  
  
Hermione was happy to point out his error.  
  
"You think engagement and marriage are 'woman stuff?' Did it ever occur to you, Ron, that it takes two people, a man AND a woman, to be engaged and to get married?" Hermione asked with less of a smile and more annoyance now.  
  
"Well, duh!" answered Ron. "I meant the planning. That's the....." Ron suddenly realized that he probably ought not complete his sentence.  
  
Hermione pounced on him anyway. "You mean to tell me, that if you get engaged, you're not going to help plan your own wedding?"  
  
"Nope. I'll leave that up to her," Ron answered.  
  
"Wouldn't it matter to you where it was, or who was there, or what you ate, or any of that?" Asked Hermione, now genuinely curious more than anything.  
  
Ron shrugged. "I guess I've just never thought about it."  
  
Hermione, being a witch, found this concept alien, and somewhat disturbing. She peered closely at Ron but spoke softly. "Don't you ever wonder who she is, or how you'll meet her?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
Hermione's jaw dropped open a little, but then she saw Ron break into a wide smile, and realized that he was just teasing her.  
  
Ron shrugged again. "I dunno. Not really. I mean, I just have this feeling I'll just..know."  
  
Hermione nodded in understanding and sat quietly for a minute.  
  
Ron couldn't pass up the opportunity that had obviously now presented itself. "So, what about you?" he asked. "Do you wonder who he is, or how you'll meet him?"  
  
Hermione was about to answer when Ron interrupted her.  
  
"Or maybe you've already met him?" he asked slyly.  
  
"Already met....?" Hermione looked at him blankly.  
  
Ron sat back with a jovial air of triumph about him. "Yeah. How's Hermione Moody sound to you?"  
  
Hermione huffed. "Ron, really."  
  
Ron sniggered.  
  
"He's an Auror, Ron, and I'm a sixth-year student....."  
  
"You don't think he's cute?" Ron was baiting her still.  
  
"That has nothing to do with anything," said Hermione hastily, now going a bit red. "He's been answering a lot of questions about being an Auror for me."  
  
Ron knew he had her and stared her down. "You usually go to the LIBRARY for your answers." He broke into a wide grin.  
  
Hermione was very red at this point and didn't even try for a suitable answer. "Oh just shut up about the whole thing!" she finally sputtered. She knew her face was very red, and was glad when Ron was suddenly distracted by the appearance of the witch who pushed the snack cart.  
  
Both of them settled back into their seats to munch quietly as the train clacked along, Ron wondering if Harry would be back in time for the sorting this year, and Hermione wondering just how soon she might run into the youngest Auror stationed at Hogwarts.  
  
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Harry stood in the shadows, among the trees, as quietly as possible while he watched Lorien work in the garden behind Perth Taber's house. He'd already said his goodbyes to Perth and to Fagan LaRue, and this was going to be his last chance to try the spell that he'd been shown by none other than the Red Witch, before he'd have to gather up his things and leave with Sirius to return to Hogwarts.  
  
This had been the best summer that Harry could remember, since he'd only had to stay at the Dursley's for a few weeks after the end of the school year, and the remainder of the time had been spent learning to master more wandless spells under the instruction of Perth Taber.  
  
His summer days had been spent doing his homework, and studying with Taber, with a couple of hours off every afternoon to swim or nap or whatever he felt like. His evenings had been spent talking to Taber, and LaRue, and occasionally the other Nemorosi elders that would come to visit, but mostly they'd been spent with Sirius.  
  
He and Sirius sat up together, often into the wee hours talking about Harry's parents, Sirius's adventures with his three best friends at Hogwarts, Quidditch, brooms, girls, life in general, and on one or two occasions......the return of the Dark Lord.  
  
Which was the reason that Harry had had to return to Privet Drive at all earlier on. Sirius had informed him before he left on the train that Dumbledore had very good reasons for wanting Harry to go back at least for a short while, but that it wouldn't be long, and he himself would come and get Harry when his stay was up.  
  
Harry smiled to himself as he thought back to the last evening of June, when his godfather had actually come to Number Four Privet Drive to collect him and escort him to the Herbrides. Needless to say it had created quite an uproar when Uncle Vernon had answered the door and discovered that the tall, dark haired man standing on the doormat was none other than Sirius Black, especially since Harry had managed to overlook mentioning the fact that Sirius had had his name cleared the previous fall.  
  
Sirius had been expecting a negative reaction from Harry's uncle when the man realized that he was a wizard, but had been taken aback by the severity of the heavy man's nearly violent response when he announced that he'd come to collect Harry.  
  
"YOU JUST....JUST.....STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" the man roared, backpedaling into the house as fast as he could. He rushed to the bottom of the stairs to call after Harry to speed him on his way. "WHERE ARE YOU, BOY?"  
  
Sirius looked puzzled for a minute, frowning to himself as he decided instantly that the Dursleys must be at least as bad as Harry had let on, and probably worse. He folded his arms and waited while more bellowing reverberated through the house.  
  
While he stood there he saw the curtains in the window pull aside ever so slightly so that Harry's aunt could peek out at the dreaded visitor on the stoop. It took Sirius about a second to recognize Petunia Dursley, even though it'd been years since the one or two times he'd seen Lily's sister when he'd gone visiting with James.  
  
Sirius gave her one of his most charming smiles and spoke. "Hello, Petunia."  
  
The curtain had been yanked sharply back across the window as a small shriek had issued from behind it. Sirius smiled to himself in a satisfied way, and then turned his attention to where Harry was struggling to get both his trunk and Hedwig's cage down the stairs.  
  
"Here," Sirius offered, taking a step forward into the doorway, "let me help you with...."  
  
"DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT SETTING A BLOODY TOE IN THIS HOUSE!" Uncle Vernon roared. "I'll not have another one under this roof, DO YOU HEAR? It's bad enough that......" He broke off as Sirius turned and fixed a cold, penetrating gaze on him.  
  
Sirius didn't blink once, and spoke slowly in a low voice. "Kindly step out of my way."  
  
He stepped past Dursley without lowering his gaze, and took the trunk from Harry who was standing near the bottom of the stairs, trying desperately not to grin from ear to ear as he watched his uncle shrink back wordlessly from the tall animagus.  
  
Sirius spoke again as he and Harry made for the door. "Thank you for looking after Harry."  
  
"You're taking him off are hands for good, then, are you?" Uncle Vernon had inquired cautiously, squirming under the intense stare.  
  
"Until the end of the school year, when he'll be back for a few more weeks," Sirius said evenly.  
  
Dursley opened his mouth to protest, but closed it again as Sirius spoke.  
  
"I trust that won't be an issue?" he asked dangerously.  
  
"No," Dursley answered, violently red in the face from the effort of restraining himself after hearing that Harry would indeed be returning at some point.  
  
"Good." Sirius fixed him with one last meaningful look, and then turned to smile at Harry. "Alright there, Harry?"  
  
"Wonderful," Harry answered, walking out the door into the dark driveway next to his godfather. He laughed as Sirius rolled his eyes at the terrific 'WHAM' that came as the door to the house was slammed violently shut.  
  
When they'd arrived on the cliffs by portkey, (an overripe dead plover) Harry gave a little shudder at the thought that it'd only been a matter of weeks since he'd faced Voldemort here, and quickly followed Sirius down the path that led inland.  
  
Harry was nervous at first about working with someone other than Lorien, but he'd gotten to know Perth Taber fairly well, and the man proved to be ever bit as fine a teacher as Lorien had said that he would be.  
  
They'd spent a month building upon the foundation that Harry had started with the Mistress of the Healing Arts, and Harry enjoyed every day learning something new, and improving his wandless abilities.  
  
The last evening of July Harry had a special surprise.....he enjoyed his first-ever birthday party at Taber's house. Sirius, Taber, and the Red Witch had thrown a small bash to which they'd also invited Kaneene and Keath Moody, who were acting as a bit of a bodyguard for Harry on the island; Lorien, who'd come from Hogwarts to stay for a few days; and to Harry's great joy, Ron and Hermione, who stayed for two days before returning home for the remainder of the summer holiday.  
  
Harry had been a bit down about his best friends having to leave so soon, but Sirius had provided a distraction a day or so later that cheered him up immensely.  
  
Sirius informed Harry at breakfast one morning that they would be going on a day-long trip to London, and when Harry asked why, merely grinned at him.  
  
"Birthday present," was all Sirius would say, and he told Harry nothing more, even when they finally arrived in London.  
  
"Will you at least tell me where we're going?" Harry pleaded, as he walked briskly alongside Sirius.  
  
Sirius smiled and glanced sideways at Harry. "Ministry of Magic."  
  
Harry looked startled. "The Min......really?"  
  
Sirius continued to smile, and nodded.  
  
Harry thought things over for a minute, still at a loss as to why Sirius would be taking him to the actual Ministry, and then he found himself grinning back at his godfather. "Did you every think you'd see the time when you could walk right into the Ministry in person?"  
  
"You mean without an escort of about a dozen aurors and a full body bind hex?" Sirius asked with a laugh. He led Harry through a well-to-do section of the city, and up a hill that overlooked the Ministry, as well as the ATC in the distance.  
  
Harry looked over the scene before him, and then asked Sirius the obvious question. "I expected the Ministry entrance to be hidden in an old muggle phone booth or something, not out in plain view. Why don't the muggles around here question what it is?"  
  
Sirius smiled at his godson. "Yes, well it's only in plain view if you're a wizard. That baby has more disillusionment on her than all of Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade put together."  
  
Harry mentally kicked himself for not seeing the obvious answer, and followed Sirius down to the entrance at the north end of the building.  
  
Sirius paused outside the Ministry entrance for just a moment and looked around. When last he'd seen the place, black smoke had been billowing out of this end of the building, and he'd stood here with Remus as a Nemorosi Death Eater had thrown Lorien off the roof. Of course, now, nine months later, there was no trace of fire damage to the structure. He shook his head to clear the rest of the memories from that night, both good and bad, from his thoughts, and led Harry up to the receptionist stationed in the foyer.  
  
"May I help you?" A witch with short red hair and horn-rimmed glasses was seated at a large desk, behind which stood two motionless security trolls.  
  
Harry eyed them warily as Sirius spoke with the woman behind the desk.  
  
"We're here to visit Sam Gumbold in the Department of Magical Transportation."  
  
She nodded, tapped two square silver badges with her wand, and handed them over to Sirius. They now read 'visitor'. "Sixth floor," she said pleasantly, and pointed down the hall a ways. "West stairs, there on your left. Please stop by the security desk first."  
  
"Thanks." Sirius gave her a winning smile and led Harry to the security officer's station, behind which stood two more unmoving security trolls  
  
"Name?" The bored-looking security guard droned the inquiry for the umpteenth time that morning as he looked over the man and the boy.  
  
"Sirius Black," replied Sirius politely, "and this is......"  
  
The security guard frowned and spoke sharply this time. "Oh, a wiseguy, huh? You know how many of you jokers think it's funny to pull that same old crap every week? Now, cut out the cute stuff. Name, please." He looked at Sirius expectantly.  
  
Sirius glanced at Harry, and then smiled at the guard. "I'm sorry, you must have misunderstood. I was serious when I said my name was Sirius Black."  
  
The guard frowned even more. "You were Sirius when you said you were Sirius? Quite the comedian, aren't you? Now, are you going to give me your name, or do I have to have you escorted out?"  
  
Sirius was starting to get impatient. "Look," he replied sternly. "I told you already, my name is......"  
  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're Sirius Frigging Black," the guard quipped, turning to summon one of the trolls, " and my name's Harry Potter."  
  
Harry and Sirius exchanged looks again and then Harry finally spoke up. "Excuse me, but he's telling you the truth. He IS Sirius Black."  
  
The guard peered closely at Harry. "And I suppose you know that how?" he asked sarcastically.  
  
"He's my godfather," Harry said, a bit of irritation creeping into his voice. "My name is Harry Potter." When the guard still looked about to call one of the trolls, Harry blew out an exasperated breath and swept his hair away from his forehead.  
  
The guard's eyes went wide. "Blimely! You really....so that is....so you are..." he turned his incredulous stare back to Sirius, who nodded.  
  
The guard stared fixedly at Sirius and croaked directions at them. "Go on then, sixth floor is it? Yes, well, er....have a good day then..."  
  
Sirius turned toward the stairs and Harry shot a passing comment at the guard. "He IS innocent, you know." He caught up to Sirius, who had already started up the stairs.  
  
"Here we are," Sirius announced with a flourish as they reached the sixth landing. "Sixth floor - Department of Magical Transportation."  
  
Harry looked up and down the hall around him, and then back at Sirius with a skeptical expression.  
  
"Magical transportation," re-explained Sirius, "you know, Floo Network, Broom Regulation......Apparation TEST CENTER?"  
  
Harry continued to frown for about two seconds and then it sank in. "Test center?" he asked, now starting to become excited. "Do you mean......?"  
  
Sirius placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and steered him toward the appropriate office. "Yup. Sixteenth birthday....about time you got your learner's permit." He was grinning from ear to ear when he saw the look on Harry's face as the younger wizard finally realized what the surprise was.  
  
Sam Gumbold, (Samantha, as it turned out) was a former classmate of Sirius, and was all too excited that she was the one who was actually getting to issue a learner's permit for the Boy-Who-Lived.  
  
Harry noticed immediately that her skirt was probably a bit too short to be wearing in an office of the Ministry, but since she obviously had the legs for it, who could blame her? Certainly not Sirius, Harry mused, as he noticed that his godfather had apparently made the exact same observation he had, and was watching the attractive witch as she retrieved the necessary paperwork.  
  
Harry just couldn't help but give his godfather a hard time. "I'm so glad that you decided we should take this little trip," he began, watching Sirius continue to assess his former classmate's assets. "It sure beats how MOODY I was at home."  
  
Sirius averted his eyes and a smirk crossed his face as he nodded to himself without looking at Harry. "Very cute, Potter," he muttered in a soft, amused voice.  
  
Harry read the scroll handed to him by Sam, and when he'd finished, signed the application at the bottom. He was all smiles as he handed the quill to Sirius, who signed his name with a flourish in the space labeled 'parent or guardian', certifying that he would be supervising Harry's lessons in apparation.  
  
And so the summer had passed all too quickly while Harry had lessons in wandless spell work, and beginning apparation, and now he found himself here, in the trees, on his last day before returning to Hogwarts, spying on Lorien, who had come to escort him back along with Sirius. She was preoccupied with her work among the flower beds, and would be the perfect unsuspecting target for his practice.  
  
Harry cleared his mind and focused, something that he'd become much quicker at after five years of study at Hogwarts, and a summer of instruction with Perth. He'd chosen Lorien because he knew her well - the Shadowing Spell was easiest to master at first when you knew the person . Shadowing an unknown person was something he'd have to learn later. He concentrated on the exchange, and spoke the command words.  
  
"Ath sequax," Harry said very softly, with his eyes closed. He could picture the shadow forming around Lorien in his mind, and he experienced the slightest warming sensation along the back of his arms and legs as the spell initiated. A good sign, he thought, focusing his concentration on Lorien once again to see if it had worked. It meant his own shadow was lifting.  
  
Harry smiled to himself as he saw, in his mind's eye, a very hazy vision of the area immediately surrounding the healer in the garden. He'd successfully achieved the transfer of his own shadow to Lorien after many tries over the past weeks, and he watched as if over her shoulder as she cut a few more irises to take with her.  
  
Although his view was a bit hazy - as if looking through a fine mist, even with this early success Harry could hear that Lorien was humming to herself. He wondered how long the transfer would last, knowing that for the most accomplished wizards it could be as long as twenty-four hours, but realizing that his weak attempts would probably last a much shorter period of time. Probably a few minutes, he guessed as he watched Lorien straighten up and head back toward the house.  
  
Harry concentrated harder to be able to see her as she moved farther away, and startled at the voice that interrupted him from behind.  
  
"Whatcha doing, Harry?"  
  
Harry whirled to see Sirius leaning against a tree, arms folded across his chest, and one foot crossed over the other. He appeared to be somewhat amused.  
  
"Oh, nothing.....I was just.....er...well, that is....." Harry struggled to explain his situation.  
  
Sirius uncrossed his arms and righted himself off the tree. "What have you done to Lorien?" he asked, sounding as if he might actually hope that Harry had indeed done something to her. Lorien was a dear friend, but that didn't stop Sirius from occasionally getting enjoyment from aggravating the witch that spent so much time in the company of Severus Snape.  
  
Harry smiled sheepishly, and deciding to come clean, took a step forward out of the trees and into the sunlight.  
  
Sirius was about to ask for a bit more explanation when he realized what he was seeing - Harry stood there in the bright sun without casting a shadow.  
  
"Where is it?" Sirius asked, now looking off toward the house, where Lorien had gone.  
  
"Spying on Lorien," Harry admitted.  
  
"Really?" Sirius sounded impressed.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"You can do that?" Sirius asked incredulously.  
  
"I guess so," Harry replied casually.  
  
"What's she doing now?" Sirius asked. He obviously wanted proof that Harry had in fact accomplished what he was saying he had.  
  
Harry concentrated again, closing his eyes, and began narrating for Sirius. "She's just put the flowers in a vase....she's going to her room upstairs.....she's standing in front of her closet....pulling out another set of robes - blue ones it looks like.....she looks like she's...."  
  
Harry's eyes snapped open and he turned a rapidly reddening expression to face Sirius.  
  
"What?" Sirius asked, frowning a little at Harry's look of mild distress.  
  
"Undressing," Harry croaked, going even redder as he answered his godfather.  
  
"Un....dressing?" Sirius's eyes went wide, and then he threw his head back and laughed as he realized what Harry had started to witness. "Handy little spell, that, isn't it?" he laughed again.  
  
It took him a moment to compose himself and stop chuckling, and for Harry's face to return to an approximation of it's normal color. Harry went red all over again as Lorien rounded the corner of the house and called to the two of them that she was ready to leave. Sirius snickered once more as the two of them approached the house and he noted that Lorien had changed into a clean set of blue robes.  
  
"Are you two ready?" Lorien asked as Harry and Sirius walked up to her.  
  
"Yes," said Harry quietly, looking primarily at his feet while he stood there, as he could feel his cheeks flushing a bit still.  
  
"Harry, are you alright?" asked Lorien, looking a bit concerned. The Nemorosi healer was ever sensitive to any signs that might indicate an ailment, magical or otherwise.  
  
"He's fine," Sirius cut in, steering Harry quickly toward the house to gather their things before Lorien might notice anything strange. " Be back in a flash.....just a little too much sun, that's all......" He dropped his voice as he and Harry rounded the corner. "..and not enough shadow, eh?"  
  
Harry and Sirius gathered up their things and met Lorien out in front of the house a few moments later, where Harry was glad to see that his own shadow was trailing him once more.  
  
Lorien looked at each of them and smiled. "Shall we go?"  
  
Harry and Sirius nodded, and casting a tracing charm together, followed Lorien back to Hogwarts.  
  
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And so the third episode begins.....;) 


	2. Breakfast

A/N:

Merlin's wand! Time flies doesn't it? I didn't know if I was ever going to get a chance to pick up the story again. Oh, I've been writing a few lines and tweaking things here and there, but 'real life' has gotten in the way more often than not. I have been dating a concert pianist named David, (a Slytherin, for those of you who were wondering) and have been doing a bit of traveling. (Texas, California, Maryland - I have now been to 32 states!)

I suppose reading HBP was enough of a bludger to the head to get me motivated to post a chapter. Hope it gives you something to read if you've already plowed through book six.

To those of you who've been reading and sending reviews, thank you very much. I still always love the feedback.

SPOILER ALERT BOOK 6

As for certain events in the end of the book, 'the death' was not completely unexpected, but still very tragic. As for the murderer, I remain steadfast in my conviction that all is not what it seems on the surface. If you've read it, you know EXACTLY what I mean. Dumbledore trusted him, that's good enough in my book still.

Well, onward. It's about bloody time, isn't it?

Chapter 2:Breakfast

On the morning of September first each year, it was tradition at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that the staff would gather for breakfast before making final preparations for the arrival of the students later in the day.

On the morning of this particular September first, Lorien was in a hurry as she walked quickly from the hospital wing, where she'd been helping Poppy finish some last minute preparations for the arrival of the students and the inevitable accompanying magical mishaps.

She would be due shortly at the staff breakfast, and in fact passed several other staff members heading in the opposite direction as she made her way toward the stairs that led to the dungeon. She knew that Severus was in his office that morning, and would be coming up the stairs at any moment.

She'd left him earlier, saying that she'd meet him at breakfast as she'd left his chambers in hurry, but she hadn't left so hastily that she didn't see the reaction her words had on the man. It wasn't so much an actual look that crossed his face as a flicker of expression that was gone in an instant. Most people wouldn't have thought much of it, if they even noticed, but Lorien had.

Not only had she noticed the fleeting change in the Potions Master's expression, but she'd understood its significance as very few other people (perhaps even only Albus) would - disappointment.

Of course, he wouldn't have wanted her to see it, so she'd just continued on her way, as if nothing had happened, but she knew that she'd need to wrap up her obligations in the ward quickly. If there was one thing she didn't want Severus Snape to experience on her account, it was disappointment, and obviously the thought of them arriving separately at breakfast had evoked that particular response.

Lorien gathered her robes up and quickened her pace, knowing that she didn't have time to make it all the way back to the dungeon, but that she could probably head him off on the stairs. She rounded the corner quickly, only to plow head long into the Potions Master himself, hurrying in the opposite direction.

'Not again!' she thought, at the same time she felt herself falling backward from the force of her collision with the taller wizard. She would have been sprawled on the floor at that point too, nearly in the same place as she had the previous autumn if it weren't for the quick reflexes of the dark robed wizard who caught her about the waist and kept her on her feet.

Snape stood there scowling at her; jaw set and hands on her waist as she regained steady footing.

Slightly flustered, Lorien opened her mouth to begin an apology, but Snape cut her off in a low dangerous voice.

"Mistress Lorien," he said slowly, " are you going to insist on starting each new year this way?" He maintained the steady eye contact, but Lorien caught the tiniest hint of amusement in his question. She started to smile.

"Might I suggest that we opt for a less……traumatic way to get things started?" he asked smoothly, hands still on her waist tightening their grip ever so slightly.

Lorien continued to smile a little, and met his gaze steadily. "I'd be open to a new idea…..if you have a suggestion, that is."

"That I do indeed, Miss Desjardins," Snape said softly, drawing her gently in once he quickly verified the hall was deserted except for the two of them.

"And would you be willing to share your suggestion with me, Professor Snape?" Lorien slid her arms up and around his neck.

"Most assuredly, Remedari Atora," he purred. "I think that you'll find my suggestion means it would be less likely for you to end up in the hospital ward as a patient." He leaned down slightly and kissed her soundly for a very long moment.

Lorien pulled away, slightly out of breath. "If you keep that up I think that it will be less likely that I end up at breakfast."

Snape raised an eyebrow at her comment, considered skipping breakfast for just a heartbeat, and then released her. "Shall we?" he asked, nodding in the direction of the Great Hall.

Lorien fell into stride next to him as they continued down the hall. "What time is it?" she asked. She hated the thought of being late.

"Three 'til nine," Snape replied as they came up to the double doors leading into the hall. "I imagine that nearly everyone else is there." He knew that he was probably right since he had long since adopted the habit of being punctual, but not arriving at meetings a second earlier than he had to.

"Probably," Lorien agreed, mildly relieved that they weren't yet late. She started to reach out as if to push the doors open but Severus held up a hand to stop her.

"Allow me, Sylvanesti," he said quietly, and then he spoke at the doors, uttering a wandless command that swung the doors steadily open for them to pass. He was rewarded with the smile that the attractive blond healer often saved just for him, and was feeling quite pleased with himself as they stepped into the room together. He had no problem with having the rest of the staff see him arrive with her by his side.

It was no secret that some of the staff felt little love for the surly Potions Master, and that several of them still considered him untrustworthy after it had been reveal last fall that he was, in fact, a former Death Eater.

'Let them take a good, long look,' he thought to himself as they crossed the room. He gazed around the table as they neared it. "It doesn't matter what any of you fools think. SHE trusts me, and so does Dumbledore. I could give a give a rat's ass as far as the rest of you are concerned.'

Three chairs at the end of the table set up for the staff remained empty, and a few yards from the table, Snape found himself quickly taking stock of who was present, knowing that there must be one more person yet to arrive besides himself and Lorien.

He never had a chance to mentally finish taking role, because at that moment, the voice next to him told him just who had been missing.

"Good morning, Mistress Lorien," Sirius Black said cheerfully. He deftly stepped between her and the head of Slytherin house as he arrived at the table just as they did. "Allow me," he said, pulling a chair out from the table for her.

"Thank you." Lorien smiled at him and sat in the seat he offered her. Sirius flung himself into the chair on her left, sitting next to Remus Lupin, and offered one of his most charming smiles to the now irritated Snape, who slipped wordlessly into the chair on Lorien's right.

Lorien leaned closer to Sirius and whispered to him in a sharp manner. "That's enough from you."

Sirius turned his most innocent expression toward her.

"Don't give me that look," she admonished him quietly. "Why must you always antagonize him?"

"Moi?" Sirius asked, hand over his heart in a gesture of mock distress.

"Yes, you," Lorien whispered in a slightly irritated manner.

Sirius replied in tone that said that he had been wrongly accused, but there was still mischief in his eyes. "But all I did was offer you a seat……..OW!" He broke off abruptly as Lorien kicked his shin under the table. "What did you do…….?" He stopped as Lorien gave him a sweet smile and gestured toward the head of the table, indicating that she was merely trying to direct his attention to where the headmaster was now standing.

He tried to shoot her a dirty look, but she was making a great show of focusing her undivided attention on Dumbledore, pointedly ignoring Sirius. He finally figured that he'd gotten what he deserved and likewise turned toward the headmaster as he rubbed his shin under the table. She'd gotten him pretty good, but it was worth it, he figured, to have seen the irritation on Snape's face when he had gotten to her chair first.

Dumbledore stood at the head of the table and smiled warmly as he gazed around the teachers and staff gathered before him at the long table. "So, here we are again," he began, "returned for another year at Hogwarts. I must say it is very good to see all of you, and I hope that everyone is well."

He paused for a moment to pick up his glass of pumpkin juice, and then looked 'round the gathering again as everyone likewise reached for a glass.

"I wish to impart but one thought this morning before the year begins. It is said that just because you are trained for something, does not mean that you are prepared for it. Let us all do our best this year no only to train our students, but to prepare them."

He looked up and down the length of the table for a moment and then raised his glass up. "To a productive year, and to all of you, the teachers and staff that are the backbone of this school."

Everyone lifted a glass or cup for the toast and then settled back into conversation and breakfast as the headmaster sat back in his chair.

The end of the table where Lorien sat remained quiet for a moment, while Sirius continued to rub his shin and mutter, and Snape continued to be silently irritated by the Gryff on the other side of Lorien. It was Remus that finally prodded the group into conversation.

"So, Lorien, no trouble getting back yesterday?" Remus asked, raising his fork to his mouth.

Lorien shot Remus a grateful look for the rescue. "No. No problems at all," she answered.

Remus turned his focus on Sirius. "Harry doing alright?"

"Yeah, he's fine. Said it was a bit lonely to stay in the tower last night by himself, but he's looking forward to seeing Ron and Hermione again."

On Lorien's right, Snape huffed quietly in disgust at the sound of the trio's names.

"Problem over there?" Sirius inquired sarcastically, eyeing the Potions Master coldly.

"Why, no. None at all." Snape's expression clouded over a bit further as he met Sirius's stare unwaveringly.

Lorien spoke up brightly, trying to ease the tension that was tightening around the foursome. "So, is it true that Quidditch is back on for this year, Sirius?" She leaned forward on her elbow into his line of vision to break the eye contact with Snape that Sirius was unwilling to drop first.

Sirius allowed his expression to lighten as he met Lorien's gaze instead of Snape's. "Yeah. Figured it would be tough on the students to have no Quidditch for a second year."

"Security will be increased?" Remus asked from Black's left, continuing the conversation, as he chewed thoughtfully.

Sirius nodded as he enthusiastically addressed the matter of his own breakfast, piling food on his plate and filling his glass with pumpkin juice. "We're bringing in even more aurors this year to cover the grounds during matches."

"I imagine it'll be safe enough," Remus commented.

"Well, as safe as a Quidditch match gets." Sirius grinned knowingly at the professor for a moment and then took on a slightly sobered expression. "Dumbledore's still not going to allow the trips to Hogsmeade, though."

"It's just too difficult for a few staff to keep track of that many students," Lorien added thoughtfully. "Too many opportunities for something to go wrong. Don't you agree, Severus?" she asked, turning to Snape to make an effort to include him in the conversation.

"Quite," was the abbreviated reply.

Lorien knew better than to try to obtain further voluntary contribution to the discussion from the man, and turned back to the two Gryffindors.

"How are things with Marlina, Remus?" she asked, indicating the red-haired witch sitting further along the table between Poppy Pomfrey and Forsythia Sprout. She imagined the two older witches were most likely grilling the poor woman on the same subject, trying to gather fresh gossip.

Remus smiled. "Couldn't be better."

"And how is Noah?" she continued, sipping her coffee.

"He's amazing," Remus replied. "Just the brightest, caring, thoughtful little boy you'd ever want to meet," he beamed. "He's such a fast learner, and I have the best time making up bedtime stories for him!"

Lorien was glad to see Remus appear so happy. "You sound like a doting uncle."

"Yeah," piped in Sirius with a sly grin. "Uncle Remus!" He began to laugh. "No Br'er Rabbit in your stories I'll bet." He broke off as a fit of mirth overtook him.

Remus rolled his eyes and sat waiting for the inevitable punch line when he heard Dumbledore speak.

"You seemed to be having quite a good time this morning, Sirius." Blue eyes twinkles behind half-moon spectacles as he regarded the laughing wizard, and then looked at Lorien, who had her face buried in her hands, and whose shaking shoulders gave away the fact that she was trying not to succumb to a fit of laughter.

"Care to share with us?" Dumbledore asked. The rest of the table quieted and looked expectant.

Sirius continued to laugh, trying hard to explain between fits. "We were talking…….that is…….discussing bedtime……….stories for Noah……….from his…….. his new uncle……." Sirius couldn't continue and buried his face in his arms on the table.

Lorien risked removing a hand long enough to utter a few words. "Uncle…..Remus," was all she managed before dissolving into laughter along with Sirius.

"Uncle Re…..?" Dumbledore's eyes widened and then an expression of great amusement spread itself out across his face. "I take it you are suggesting that the good professor is weaving tales about _W'ere Rabbit_ instead of _Br'er Rabbit_?" he asked dryly.

A second later the muggle reference caught up with most of the staff and almost the whole the table erupted in laughter at Remus's expense; everyone but Snape and Marlina.

Snape groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose in a pained gesture. "Excuse me," he said to Lorien, standing and then stalking out of the room.

Marlina shot a very concerned look down the table in Remus's direction, worried that he'd be embarrassed, or hurt, or both. She was relieved to see, however, that the good- natured werewolf was laughing as hard as anyone else. She allowed herself to chuckle a little as she glanced around the table and realized that this was a group that had come to accept and admire the man (as had she) for who he was the other 29.5 days a month.

The merriment began to dissipate as the staff and professors began pushing their chairs back from the table and began to leave in pairs and small groups. Several of them patted Remus affectionately on the shoulder as they passed. Dumbledore smiled warmly at his DADA professor before leaving with Madame Pomfrey chatting to him about something in an animated fashion.

When Lorien realized that the group left now only consisted of herself, Sirius, Remus, and Marlina, she quickly grabbed Sirius by the arm. "Well, off we go. Lot's to do before the students arrive today, right Sirius?" She glanced at him in a meaningful manner that he missed at first.

"Huh?" he asked, eyeing a lone maple scone that remained on a platter.

"I said," repeated Lorien in a slow deliberate way, indicating Remus and then Marlina, "there's LOTS left to do.' She stood up and pushed in her chair. "We should get going."

Sirius glanced at the pair she was indicating, and light dawned. "Right you are! Lots of security to look to before those new first years arrive!" He winked at Lorien, grabbed the scone and jumped to his feet. "I'm off. Cheers!" He waived the scone at Remus and Marlina and hurried to catch up with the blonde witch, who was headed for the hallway.

Remus watched them leave and then turned to say something to Marlina, who he had not seen for the past two weeks while she and Noah had been off visiting his paternal grandparents. (They had decided it was still best that Remus not accompany them on these visits yet, since Marlina's first husband had been killed by a rogue werewolf.)

He startled slightly to find that she was no longer in her chair, but standing next to him, smiling. "Are you going to welcome me back?"

"Back?" He feigned a confused look.

"Yes, back," she repeated, "from the grandparents' home."

"The grandparents' home? I hadn't even really noticed that you were gone," Remus teased.

Before Marlina could manage a proper scowl, Remus reached up quickly, pulled her into the chair with him, and hugged her tightly. "Merlin's wand! Have I ever missed you!" he whispered.

She clung to him and leaned her head against his. "I missed you, Remus. We both missed you. I never thought two weeks could seem so long, especially…. especially when…." Marlina broke off

"It's alright." Remus tightened his embrace to comfort her. He knew how bad she felt about being away during the full moon. Not that there was anything she could do, but she felt better at least being at hand when the next morning came. Heck, he felt so much better when she was at hand the morning after.

"Shall we go find Noah?" Remus asked, partly to change the subject, and partly because he missed the youngster a great deal as well.

"Sure," Marlina paused as she smiled and stood up, and then smirked and added "Uncle Remus."

"Very funny," Remus said as he offered his arm to the red haired witch and went off with her to find the little boy.


	3. The After Breakfast Body Bind

A/N: Hello again! I wanted to welcome some of you back, and some of you for the first time, and let you know that I have been doing a fair amount of work on the Recurring Nytdmare lately. Real life has been intruding less, and there are already 8 or nine more chapters being tweaked at present. I figured we all need some other way to get our HP fix now that Book Seven is finished, eh?

Hope you enjoy!

The After Breakfast Body Bind

After breakfast, (as odd as it had been) Harry found himself looking at the clock in the Gryffindor common room, and realized he had a lot of time left to kill before Ron and Hermione would arrive on the Hogwarts Express. He couldn't wait to see them. He wanted to tell Ron all about the Shadowing spell, (he had decided it was probably best to avoid telling Hermione about it if he didn't want a very long lecture about invasion of privacy) and he had to tell them about the fact that he'd actually had breakfast with Malfoy.

Merlin! Was Ron ever going to have difficulty understanding that he and Malfoy had actually gotten through an entire meal without hexing each other into next week. Harry suspected that even Hermione, as open minded as she could be, was probably going to assume that Draco was up to something.

Was he?

A few weeks ago Harry would have assumed that the only reason Malfoy would have considered a conversation with him would have been to try to insult him and harass him as much as possible. It was a rare thing over the past 5 years that a confrontation between Harry and Draco hadn't ended up with a lot of threats and socially unacceptable vocabulary being flung up and down the hall. So what happened this morning?

Harry had heard enough about Draco's actions at the end of last term on Harris Island to hope that he had actually turned away from his corrupt family. Maybe he actually was on their side now.

Harry screwed up his face at the thought for a moment. "Ack.!" The thought of sharing the same opinions on anything with Malfoy gave Harry's stomach a momentary turn. He was sure that Malfoy was probably somewhere in the castle having similar feelings about him.

It made his head hurt to consider the possibility, but could it be that Draco had turned? From snatches of conversation Harry had overheard between Sirius and Remus, it seemed as though the headmaster was fairly convinced.

Harry sighed. It was just as well. They would need all the help they could get against Voldemort, especially if the rumors of him now courting werewolves and vampires was true. He had only ever seen Remus transformed that one time at the end of third year, but it was enough that he knew he never wanted to go up against a werewolf if he could help it.

Harry smiled to himself wryly. If Malfoy was on their side it was more than fine with Harry if he handled the werewolves. Not that he wanted anything bad to happen to the younger Malfoy (ok so he wouldn't mind seeing Draco belching up slugs or hit with the ceaseless sneezes hex) but it would serve him right after all the snide comments about Lupin over the years.

Speaking of snide comments about Lupin……Harry figured that if someone like Snape could be offered a second chance, then certainly Draco had a chance of redemption.

Yup, as much as it was going to pain Ron and Hermione to do so, they were going to have to accept the fact that Malfoy was now on their side.

Harry glanced at his watch. He'd managed to kill a little time but it was hours before his best friends would arrive at Hogwarts.

Bored, he aimlessly shuffled through the halls, running into no one except Filch, who looked very much like he would like to accuse Harry of doing something out of bounds, but had to settle for shooting Harry a menacing scowl as he hurried off down the hallway followed by Mrs. Norris. He obviously was preparing for the onslaught of first years that was about to arrive that evening, and begin breaking rules like all the other first years had ever done.

"Damn hooligan rule breakers," Harry muttered out loud for his own amusement, and he chuckled.

"Rule breakers? At Hogwarts?" An amused female voice startled Harry a little and he turned to see Lorien coming up the hall from the medical wing towards him.

"Ben ilyan – good morning, Harry," she said, smiling affectionately. "I bet you'll be glad to see all your classmates this evening."

"Definitely. I can't wait to see them all again," he replied.

"You seem a little down," she commented.

"Just anxious to see Ron and Hermione, I guess," Harry admitted.

Lorien stood there biting her lip for a minute and then spoke again. "Care to kill an hour in a wandless lesson? Or have you had enough over the summer?"

"That would be great!" Harry brightened and then sobered a little. "Don't you have a lot to do before everyone arrives, though?"

Lorien shook her head. "I think we're as ready as we're going to be Harry. As a matter of fact, Madame Pomfrey was just suggesting that we check our supplies over for the _third_ time." Her voice held a trace of amusement.

"I suggested that it would also be a good idea to go to the dungeon to check on the controlled substances there, and naturally she decided that it was best if I checked them." Lorien winked at Harry.

"Well, I don't want to keep you from checking……."

Lorien waved him off. "Not a big deal, Harry. It was just my excuse to escape from counting the doses of Pepper-Up potion a third time. Professor Snape, I am sure, has everything under control in the dungeon. Shall we?" She indicated the direction of the empty classroom that they'd used in the past.

"Alohomora." Lorien passed her hand over the lock and the door swung open. "After you," she said, indicating Harry should go first.

Harry took a step towards the door and raised his wand. "Lum….." He hesitated mid-spell when he heard Lorien clear her throat pointedly behind him. He turned and looked at where she held out her palm to him. Smiling sheepishly, he placed his wand in her hand, and turned back toward the still-dark room.

"Lumos." Harry gestured at the lamps on the walls and they both stepped into the lighted room.

"Better." Lorien nodded approvingly. "Now, I was thinking that we might work on a wandless body bind curse. What do you think?"

"That's cool. Am I supposed to hex you?" Harry asked, grinning.

"Well, yes. There's no one else available right now," Lorien replied.

Harry smirked and jerked his head toward the door a little. "I just saw Filch go by."

"_Mr_. Filch, Harry, and let's not even go there."

Harry thought he could detect faint amusement in Lorien's voice as she turned and gestured at a few of the desks, causing them to slide to the edges of the room and clearing a space large enough for them to work in.

"Now," Lorien began, leaning against one of the desks as she addressed Harry. "There is one very important thing about this lesson and the full body bind. What do you think that might be?"

Harry smiled as he answered. "I imagine the most important thing at for this lesson is that I know the counter curse."

"Absolutely," Lorien said emphatically. "As much as I don't mind volunteering to be your guinea pig, the thought of laying in some dark classroom immobilized until Professor McGonagall arrives to teach her first class tomorrow does not appeal to me."

Harry grinned as he placed his hand over his heart in a gesture of mock alarm. "Sylvani atora, I would never leave you lying in a dark classroom until tomorrow. I'm sure that if I left the door cracked open a little Mrs. Norris would wander in at some point well before midnight."

Lorien knew the young wizard was joking, but shuddered anyway. "Yes, eh, well all the same Harry, are you familiar with the counter curse?" The thought of Mrs. Norris sniffing around her while she couldn't do anything about it did not appeal to her. There was something downright creepy about that little cat.

Not to mention Filch.

Ew.

Lorien shuddered once more and looked back at Harry expectantly.

"Enervate works for the full body bind as well as a stunning spell, right?" Harry asked.

"Yes, that's right, Harry," Lorien nodded. "Good. Now…." Lorien handed Harry back his wand. "Let's try it once to be sure you've got it, and then I'll show you how to it's done Nemorosi style."

She stood in front of Harry and braced herself slightly. "Ready?"

Harry nodded and raised his wand.

Lorien nodded at him. "Go ahead."

Harry swung his wand to bear on the witch in front of him and hexed her. "Petrificus totalus!"

Lorien suddenly looked concerned and started toward him the same exact moment the flash of light left his wand. "Harry wait…." It was as much as Lorien could get out before the spell hit her.

Harry would have stopped the spell if he could have, but it was just a second too late. He realized at the same moment what Lorien must have as he watched her go rigid, arms by her side and start to fall over backwards.

She was going to hit the floor hard, and they hadn't done anything to cushion her fall. Harry reacted quickly, springing forward to try to reach the toppling woman before she fell over. He missed her arm and frantically grabbed a handful of the front of her robes and yanked just as his foot caught on a nearby chair.

Lorien stopped falling backward, but Harry couldn't keep his footing as he tripped, and as Lorien's momentum swung toward him he let go of her and flung out his arms to catch himself. He fell to his hands and knees on the floor, thankful that he had broken his fall. A second later Lorien's rigid form crashed down onto him, sending him sprawling into the floor face first.

Harry lay there for a moment scowling to himself. What a klutz! He groaned a little and pointed his wand over his shoulder at the petrified witch. "Enervate," he gasped, out of breathe from the impact with the floor and his mentor.

Lorien blinked a few times and shook her head to get rid of the dazed feeling. She looked around from where she had landed on the floor and saw Harry was gone. There was no sign of the teenager as she looked left and then right.

"Harry?"

"Right here," he answered quietly from behind her.

Lorien started a bit and then realized what had happened as she climbed a little awkwardly back to her feet. She smiled as she turned to offer her hand down to the boy on the floor. "All right there, Harry?"

Harry reached up to grasp Lorien's offered hand and let her help pull him off the floor and onto his feet. He nodded as he straightened his robes and then tapped himself with his wand between the eyes when he realized his vision was skewed. "Reparo." The crooked frame of his glasses snapped back into place.

Lorien clapped her hands together in front of her, causing several chair cushions to fly across the room onto the spot on the floor that she and Harry had just occupied. "Yes, well then, now that we've established that you know the counter curse…..shall we try it sans wands?" She smiled at Harry.

"Yeah," Harry said, turning and placing his wand on a nearby desk. "I'm ready."

"Good," Lorien said, nodding. She raised both of her hands in front of her, palms toward her, and clenched them into fists. "This requires strength, rigidity, firmness……"

"An earth spell, right?" Harry ventured, mimicking Lorien's gesture.

'Yes, Harry," she replied, smiling, "and what would the counter spell be?"

Harry looked thought full for a moment as he pondered her question. Water would wash away the earth if you used a water spell to counter the binding curse. He repeated his thoughts to Lorien.

"Yes, that would work," she said, and then hesitated as Harry looked like he wanted to say something else. "Something else, Harry?"

Harry frowned a little as he spoke. "Couldn't you also use an air spell?"

"An air spell? Explain why you think so, Harry," Lorien said, sounding intrigued.

Harry paused for a moment, trying to follow his own thoughts to conclusion before he spoke.

"Well," he began slowly, "it's as if I could picture a wall of stone turning to dust and blowing away in the wind."

Lorien looked thoughtful for a moment. "Interesting, Harry. Why don't you try it?"

"Are you sure? What if it doesn't work?" Harry asked.

Lorien smiled and placed herself in front of Harry again, arms by her sides. "Harry, I'm assuming that you'll grab your wand if all else fails. I'd really rather not wait for that ……cat."

Harry felt the same way about creepy little Mrs. Norris and wrinkled his nose up as he nodded in agreement.

"All right. I'm ready," he said, stepping one foot forward to steady himself and holding his fists up in front of him like a prizefighter.

"Ok. On the count of three. One……..two……..three!" Lorien shouted.

Harry slammed his fists together, sealing the earth spell, and Lorien toppled backwards onto the cushions. He leaned over to observe that she was completely unmoving and that the spell had worked well.

Cool.

Harry closed his eyes in concentration and saw the wall crumbling before him, he made a sideways pass in the air with his right hand and visualized the wall of dust just blowing away. He opened his eye to see Lorien blinking and shaking her head as she started to sit up. It had worked.

Very cool.

Lorien glanced at the grinning teenager and reached up to take the hand he had offered her to help her up. She let him pull her to her feet and then smoothed her robes back into place.

"That was incredible, Harry. Did you and Perth work on that over the summer by any chance?"

Harry shook his head.

"Well," Lorien went on, shaking her head still in amazement. "You've obviously done some work. I must say I'm extremely pleased and more than a little impressed."

Harry was still grinning. "That was kinda cool, wasn't it."

"Very."

Harry suddenly looked thoughtful again and it was if Lorien read his mind. She spoke just ahead of him. "Let's try it once more, but with the water reversal."

"Can we?" Harry was already stepping back into place with his hands raised in front of him.

Lorien made sure the cushions were in place and nodded. "Ready. On three, then, Harry. One…..two……thr……."

Harry slammed his fists together. "Petrificus totalus!"

Harry watched as Lorien's body stiffened immediately and slammed into the pillows as his slightly overzealous binding spell hit her.

"Oops. I guess I got carried away," Harry said sheepishly. "Thank goodness for those cushions, eh?"

Of course, Lorien, under the influence of the full body bind, said nothing.

Harry concentrated and quickly washed away the bind with a gesture. He watched as Lorien shook her head and once again helped her to her feet.

"Sorry," he offered, looking a little embarrassed. Lorien was on her feet but looking a bit tired after that last go.

"Not a problem, Harry," she said, smiling, "but I think that will be enough for this morning."

Harry watched her move a little stiffly across the room.

"If you would be so good as to straighten up a bit?" Lorien gestured vaguely at the classroom around them as she made it to the door.

"Are you….?" Harry started, looking concerned.

"Fine," she assured him somewhat unconvincingly from the door. "I'm just going to have a bit of a lie down."

Lorien left Harry to straighten up McGonagall's classroom and walked tiredly back toward the medical ward, intent on finding herself a dose of Freloux's elixer. She was extremely pleased with the progress Harry had made over the summer with Perth, but that last body bind he'd cast had been like someone hit her with a brick, or more like several bricks.

Damn if his spells weren't packing more punch.

Poppy glanced up from where she was storing doses of analgesic potions in one of the cabinets. "Ah, there you are, love. Wondered where you'd gotten to."

Lorien pointed at the vial in Poppy's hand. "Would you mind handing me that?"

Poppy smiled at her and waived her off. "Don't worry about it. I'm just about finished – just this last batch of Freloux's and we'll be all ready for the students to arrive…." She stopped as she realized Lorien was shaking her head.

"No, Poppy. It's for me." She held out her hand for the vial being held by the older witch.

Poppy handed the vial to Lorien and raised her eyebrows as the younger medical witch popped the stopper and tossed her head back, downing the contents of the small bottle. She waited while Lorien stood there with her eyes closed for a moment until the potion's effects kicked in.

Lorien finally sighed and handed back the empty vial. "Thanks, Poppy. "

"You alright, dear?" Poppy asked concernedly. "You look a little ragged considering the students haven't even arrived yet."

"Yes….thanks." Lorien saw the look Poppy was giving her. "I was giving a lesson to Harry and got hit with a full body bind hex three times. If we're all set I'm going to go lie down for a little while so I'll be ready for the welcoming feast."

Poppy winced and then began bustling about again. "Yes, well I'll see you at the sorting then, dear."

Lorien nodded and walked back to her room. She let herself in and decided that nap or not, she was definitely ready for the students to return.

She was going to need other guinea pigs for Harry's lessons, and had decided that Ron and Hermione could arrive none too soon.


	4. The Tao of Ciao

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, gang! Thanks for the coffee, Snowwolf. Eyvie, my Spanish is a little rusty, but I got the gist of your review- gracias. Kuramaisfine –how strange it is to not be able to wait to see how the story ends, yet never want it to end all at once, eh?

**The Tao of Ciao**

It was drawing very near to the time when the students would be arriving for the welcoming feast and the sorting ceremony would take place for the new first year students.

A new year, new faces, new friends – a time for starting new adventures and for gathering new knowledge.

According to the way Venus and Mercury were currently aligned, it was also the best time for making amends and for repairing relationships. If the retrograde angles didn't lie, and they usually didn't, this would be the very hour to start over on any failed endeavor, including relationships.

At least it sounded like a convincing rationale as to why Ariel Sinistra would want to approach Lorien Desjardins with an apology. Ariel smiled in a smug way to herself as she strode along the hall to the medical wing. '_That's my story and I'm sticking to it_.'

It was true, so even if the healer from the Herbrides knew anything about interpreting the heavens, Ariel would be covered.

Besides, what would be the chances that anyone at Hogwarts, including Desjardins, could possibly have the understanding of the subtleties of astrological interpretation that she possessed? Ariel thought it over and smiled another self-satisfied smile. "Why….none," she said derisively.

Sinistra arrived at the door to the rooms that Forsythia Sprout had said belonged to the Mistress of the Healing arts and paused for a moment before knocking. She took a deep breath, held it and let it out slowly as she spoke to herself under her breath. "Remorse, remorse, remorse," was her mantra to place her in the correct frame of mind. When she was certain she had arranged her features into a sufficiently contrite expression, she raised her hand and knocked, intentionally a bit tentatively, on Lorien's door. She folded her hands together and waited.

Lorien had showered after her nap and was in the middle of getting dressed for the welcoming feast when the knock came at her door.

"Come in," she called back over her shoulder from the bedroom. After a moment she could tell that whoever had knocked was still outside the door, and she went quickly to open it, one hand on the doorknob, one hand holding her hair in an intricate braid on top of her head where she had yet to charm it in place.

She half-expected it to be Poppy, coming to give her some last minute update on the readiness of the infirmary, or maybe Severus coming to accompany her to the Sorting, but she never, ever expected who might be standing outside her door.

Ariel Sinistra.

"Ariel." The name escaped Lorien's lips in an involuntary gasp before she could make an attempt at composing herself.

"Lorien," the Astronomy professor said quietly in reply.

As the initial shock of seeing Sinistra outside her door wore off, Lorien thought the woman seemed ill at ease standing there. '_As well she should_,' Lorien thought to herself irritatedly.

"What can I do for you, Professor?" Lorien asked the tall, willowy woman standing in front of her, thinking that what she'd really like to do would be to grab a handful of that long black hair and smash her face into a large bubotuber.

Sinistra looked up and down the hallway nervously as she spoke. "Might you have just a moment, Lorien? There's something important that I'd like to discuss with you."

Lorien narrowed her eyes at the woman. "What is it?"

Sinistra opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again, glancing meaningfully past Lorien into her rooms. "Someplace a little more private?"

Lorien stared back at Sinistra for another couple of seconds and then reluctantly decided to invite her in. It must be something fairly important if Sinistra had come all the way down out of her tower to the medical ward in person. She stepped aside to let the Astronomy witch by, charmed her hair in place and shut the door. She stood there with her hands on the doorknob, counted to five silently, and then turned to face the anxious-looking woman behind her.

"So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about," Lorien said, trying to keep the bite out of her voice with little success.

Sinistra reached up with her hand and tossed her hair back over her shoulder in a nervous gesture before she began, staring at the floor at Lorien's feet. "Look, Lorien…..this……this isn't easy," she said timidly, "but I have something to say, and I'd like to get it all out before you say anything." She glanced anxiously up at the Hogwarts healer and waited for her to reply.

Lorien wasn't at all sure what to say. "All right. Let's hear it then," she answered cautiously.

Sinistra nodded and then went on, looking for all the world like she'd like to be somewhere else. "I'll keep this simple……I guess that would be best."

She nervously pushed her long hair back over her shoulder again. "Lorien…..I came to…..apologize."

Lorien raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Look," Sinistra went on, "I know this was unexpected. It was unexpected for me too, but I have to confess that I just haven't been happy with myself, since, well…..since I caused all that trouble last year for you and Professor Snape….."

"And Professor Lupin," Lorien interjected sternly.

Sinistra nodded, glancing down at her feet. "And Professor Lupin," she agreed. "I don't expect you to forgive me, but I hope you understand how important it is to me that I express my regrets for what I've done. It was all out of petty jealousy over Remus, and it was very childish of me. I've felt terribly guilty ever since, and I wanted the chance to make amends."

Sinistra glanced tentatively up at Lorien, who looked a lot less angry and more like she didn't know exactly what to make of the whole situation. She took advantage of Lorien's confused silence to go on.

"I know that you're not the only one that I owe an apology to, Lorien, but I thought I would start with you and work my way up to the tougher conversations."

Her comment finally caused Lorien to smile just a little, and Sinistra knew she was on the right track. "I figured that now, at the start of term, it would be a good time for us to try to start over. I made my mind up to come and find you before the feast after my observations last night."

Sinistra risked a smile as she finished. "If I have interpreted the positions of Venus and Mercury correctly, and I believe I have……this is the ideal time to mend failed relationships." She paused for just a moment, gathering the most sincere tone of voice and expression she could. "I'd really like for us…..all of us to….." here her voice became a little hoarse, "start over, Lorien."

Lorien was stunned. "Well, Ariel, I am surprised at all of this, but I will certainly accept your apology."

Sinistra smiled in a relieved way. "I'm so glad, Lorien. I know that we won't instantly be friends, but I hope that we can look forward to a pleasant year working together."

Lorien accepted the hand that the Astronomy professor offered her. "Thank you, Ariel. I know that wasn't easy for you."

Sinistra shrugged and smiled again as she made for the door. "I should be going. I want to try to see Remus while I have a little time." She paused once more in the hallway. "See you at the welcoming feast," she said as Lorien nodded and shut her door.

After getting a few paces down the hallway, Sinistra finally allowed her mask of contrition to fall and a nasty smile crept across her face. _'Well, that was a terrific warm up…..quite convincing if I do say so myself. I do believe that Nemorosi bitch bought it!_'

She turned the corner and started up the flight of stairs. This conversation was the critical one; so important to her plans, and she needed to be as convincing as possible. Of course it was completely likely that the Defense professor would believe her and probably forgive her – he was such a kind, understanding soul. It wasn't really Lupin she was worried about – it was that damn suspicious best friend of his that concerned her.

Well, this would be the true test. If she could convince Black, she knew she could convince Lupin. Sinistra stopped at the first door at the top of the stairs – the one across from where Lupin resided, adopted her best anxious-yet-determined look and knocked.

Sirius could not have been in a better mood as he continued singing the song he'd be crooning and stepped out of the shower. He reached for one of the towels always hung out by the house elves, pausing in mid-reach to hit a high note that was a little out of his range. Towel in hand, he muffled his own singing as he vigorously dried his face. He erupted back into full volume as he then wrapped the towel around his waist and peered into the bathroom mirror, pausing for a moment as his own bedraggled countenance looked back at him. He shook his head vigorously for several seconds, sending water droplets flying in every direction about the bathroom, effectively drying his hair much the same way he would in his alternate form.

"There," he said, grinning to himself in the mirror again. He headed for the bedroom, breaking into song again and tossing the wet towel onto the bed as he began to get dressed. Tonight was going to be a great night. Not only was he pleased with the way all the security details had come together tonight…...not only was he going to get to attend his first welcoming feast since school _as a free man_, but he was going to be seated next to that little hottie of an auror at the head table.

And after the feast tonight….. well, just maybe Ms. Kaneene Moody might be interested in breaking out those handcuff for another game of Aurors and…….

Sirius shook his head vigorously again to temporarily banish thoughts along those lines. He had to keep it on a professional level until the feast was over, and he'd better get a move on since Moody would be here any minute so they could get down to the carriages to escort the students back to the castle.

Stepping quickly into the black jeans he often wore under his robes, he was just shrugging into a shirt when the knock came at the door.

Sirius's crooked, roguish smile sprang to his features and he swept to the door, adopting his best "come hither" stance as he slouched on his elbow against the wall, his shirt unbuttoned to his navel. He donned a sultry expression and lowered his voice to a seductive whisper with an accent as he opened the door for Moody.

"Ciao, baby," he purred.

Remus Lupin was in his quarters, seated at his desk with quill in hand. He was penning a letter back to Arthur Weasley containing some information that he'd asked for concerning a rogue werewolf named Fenrir Greyback. Remus knew it wasn't an urgent question, but he had a bit of time to kill before the welcoming feast, and he figured he would get the letter out of the way.

He had just signed his name with a flourish and was debating about summoning an owl, when someone screamed in the hallway. It was followed immediately by a second, piercing cry and a door slamming.

Remus was around his desk and flinging open his door in seconds, wand drawn and at the ready as he blew through the doorway and into the hall. That outcry was Sirius, and the only other time he'd heard his best friend scream that way was when he'd been surrounded by dementors.

The sound of someone shouting obscenities having to do with Merlin's nether anatomy came from behind the closed door of Black's room, making Remus instantly feel a lot more at ease. Sirius's swearing only took on such a colorful nature if he was irritated, not if he was in trouble. Lupin would have relaxed completely as he crossed the hallway to see what Sirius was shouting about when he suddenly became aware of someone else standing in the hall.

She looked somewhat shaken from where she'd fallen back against the wall, but there was no one that Remus would have expected to find standing outside his door less than Ariel Sinistra.

Lupin's eyebrows shot up as he realized who the woman that was leaning against the wall clutching at her heart was.

"Ariel?" He asked in a puzzled way, glancing at Sirius's door and then back at the Astronomy witch.

Sinistra appeared to have caught her breath and straightened herself and her robes as she nodded her head in the direction that Sirius had vanished. "I guess I startled him," she replied, "and then I screamed when he did. Evidently he was expecting someone else by the way he came to the door half dressed."

A muffled voice shouted from the distance behind Black's closed door. "I was more than half dressed!"

The door flung open and Sirius, now dressed in midnight blue robes and looking composed once again, stepped through the door. "What are you doing up here anyway, Ariel?"

Sinistra buried the biting remark that normally would have been her reflexive answer, dropping her gaze to the floor and her voice to a little more than a whisper. "I came to see Remus," she replied quietly.

Sirius leaned against the doorway again, arms folded across his chest. His tone was openly cool and suspicious. "Well, what in Merlin's name were you doing knocking on my door?"

Sinistra's answer changed even as she started to speak and as her mind came up with a better story on the spot. "I had the wrong door, that's all. I knew Remus's rooms were one of these two and I just happened to pick the wrong one." She didn't need to share with either of them that she had always known exactly where the werewolf slept, nor that she likewise knew where he was and who he was with a great deal of the time. That would sound a bit too much like obsession.

'_**But you ARE obsessed with that man**_,' a little voice inside her head chimed in.

'_Shut it,_' Ariel said to the little voice and then she looked back up at Black as he addressed her again.

"Well," Black asked, "what is it you want with Remus anyway. It's kind of a busy night for you to be out prowling about……"

Sinistra had to bite her lip to keep the scathing retort from escaping. Fortunately it was Lupin that intervened at that moment.

"Perhaps, Sirius," Lupin began, patting Black's arm in an affectionate way, yet obviously indicating dismissal, "that is between Professor Sinistra and myself?" He turned to the black-haired witch. "We have a few moments before we need to be in the great hall," he said, glancing back at his own door. "Shall we?"

Sinistra nodded, risked a brief irritated look in Black's direction and started to follow Lupin to his room diagonally across the hallway.

"Moony," Sirius started, concern in his voice, and suspicion evident in his eyes.

Lupin raised a placating hand and shook his head slightly, effectively cutting off any further comment from his worried friend. "I'll see you at dinner?"

Sirius looked from the werewolf to the witch and back again, obviously not liking the situation. "Fine. I'll see you shortly." He gave Sinistra one last distrustful look and turned and strode down the hallway to find Kaneene Moody.

Remus offered for Sinistra to go ahead of him through the door to his quarters that was still open from when he'd run into the hallway, and she stepped through into his small sitting room and turned to wait for him as he shut the door.

Remus turned and indicated an armchair near the fireplace. "Please sit, Ariel." He seated himself in the one opposite hers as she sat tentatively on the edge of the armchair. "What can I do for you?"

Sinistra could tell that Lupin was trying to keep his demeanor neutral, but she could hear the slight tension in his voice that belied the irritation that he felt toward her. How she wished he didn't feel that way.

'_**You can hardly blame the man**_' the little voice said.

'_I know, I've made some mistakes in the past. I'm going to make sure I fix everything the way it should be_," Sinistra replied silently.

'_**You mean the way you want it to be**_,' the little voice said sarcastically.

'_Look, just drop it for….._'

"Ariel, was there something you actually wanted to discuss with me?

Ariel could se that Lupin was looking at her expectantly as she appeared to be staring at him blankly. "Er……yes." She let go a long, ever so slightly dramatic sigh to paint how distressed she was at coming to talk to him. Being who he was, Lupin's expression suddenly took on perhaps just a touch of something different. Was that concern?

'_**Nice one. Not overdone**_,' the little voice said admiringly.

'_Thanks_.'

"Remus look," Sinistra began, "I don't want to make a scene, and I want to keep this simple. I came to apologize for the trouble I caused you last year."

Lupin's eyebrows arched for a minute and then fell back to normal. "It isn't really me that you owe an apology to so much as it is Lorien and Severus."

"Yes, well I just came from seeing Lorien, and I plan on talking to Snape next," Sinistra replied, noting the slight look of surprise from Lupin, "but I really do feel that I owe you an apology."

Lupin tipped his head a little to consider her statement. "And why do you feel that way?"

'_**How can you resist that little head tip thing that he does?**_'

'_I can't. That's why I'm here_.'

'_**That makes sense.**_'

'_Duh._'

"I guess I've had a difficult time admitting it, but I didn't take rejection from you very well when you were first here teaching," Sinistra answered hesitantly.

Lupin gave her a look obviously containing a degree of concern. "I never meant to hurt your feelings……"

"No, Remus, please…….I didn't come here to make you feel guilty at all," Sinistra protested. "I was a child about the whole thing…..I thought I was over it when you left." Sinistra let her voice waiver a little. "I guess I wasn't."

She paused for effect and continued, letting a tad more distress slip into her voice. "When you returned I guess it dredged up some old feelings, and perhaps some hope that there might still be a chance for something between us. You can imagine how disappointed I was when I found out you were with Lorien."

'_**Disappointed? You nearly went 'round the bend!**_'

"_Evidently I have gone 'round the bend if I'm having conversations with myself!_'

'_**Good point.**_'

Sinistra managed another sigh and inched the emotional meter up another notch. "I know it's hard to understand, but even though you and Lorien ended up separated, I still blamed her for……." Sinistra's voice choked with emotions that she made a good show of trying to keep in check, "there not being a chance for us to be together."

Sinistra broke down with a little sob at that point. "I wanted to punish her. I know it wasn't rational. I was just so hurt…." A tear rolled down her cheek, eliciting a look of deeper concern from Lupin that Ariel noted keenly despite her little drama.

'_**Nice touch. Don't overdo it**_.'

'_Butt out, would you? I've got it all under control_.'

"Ariel," Lupin began, concern apparent in his voice as well.

Sinistra waived him off. "No," she sobbed, "no, Remus, it's all my fault." She let another little shudder and sob go. "I guess I wasn't ready to admit the fact that us not being together really had nothing to do with Lorien. It was just not…….not …….meant to….." She broke down without finishing, sobbing quietly in her chair as she hung her head, but not before she noted with glee the response she got from Lupin.

Remus hated to admit it, but Ariel was making him feel awful. True, he really couldn't say he'd even entertained the possibility of a relationship with her, but he could certainly understand how prolonged and painful some disappointments could be. He'd had enough of them in his life to know. He stood and crossed the short distance between his chair and Sinistra's and knelt in front of her, handing her a handkerchief he'd just conjured.

"Here," he said softly, sympathy evident in his expression.

'_**Couldn't you just lose yourself in those amazing gray eyes?**_'

'_Oh, could I ever…._'

Sinistra wiped her eyes and made an attempt at trying to gather some composure. She looked at the man kneeling in front of her and tried to sound as sincere as she ever had about anything. "Remus," she said softly, " I am sorry. I've just felt awful about myself and everything that happened. I understand now that you and I just aren't meant to be, but I really would like for us to get along well as colleagues." She looked into those soft gray eyes. "I hope at some point that you'll be able to forgive me."

Remus gave her a kindly smile as he stood and offered her his hand, helping her out of her chair. "It's getting late."

Sinistra nodded and dabbed away the last of her tears.

"Ariel," Lupin continued, "I forgive you."

"You do?" she asked in her most hopeful voice.

'_**Of course he does! You knew he would! You knew…..**_'

'_Shut it._'

Sinistra heaved a relieved little sigh and gave him a relieved little smile. "Thank you, Remus."

Lupin smiled a little more broadly at her.

'_Ah, heaven_.'

"Professor Sinistra, would you be so kind as to accompany a fellow teacher to the welcoming feast?" he asked.

"Really?" Sinistra was genuinely a little surprised.

"Yeah. Come on." Lupin said, starting for the door. "Walk down with me." He turned away before he ever saw the self-satisfied smile that flickered across Sinistra's lips.


	5. The Welcoming Feast

A/N: Thanks gang for taking the time to R/R. I love hearing from you! Just a quick note –if you haven't been to my profile page lately (I know a lot of you just link to the newest chapter) I mention two other one-shot fics I've written lately.

'Flavor of the Month' is a Marauders quickie that was written for The August Ice Cream Challenge at the Reviews Lounge Forum. (Snape fans will like it too.)

The second fic is chapter 30 of 'Rainbow Magic' – a collaborative effort by a group of writers at the Reviews Lounge forum. Each chapter is a character sketch by a different author centered somehow around the word 'rainbow'. Some of them are _very_ good. My character is Cedric Diggory. I happen to like Molly Weasley, Snape, Firenze, and Andromeda Black, but check out your favorite characters! (My computer is acting wonky right now -the links are on my profile page.)

Don't forget to review the ones you read! The writers at the Reviews Lounge are dedicated to reviewing every story they read, so return the favor and drop them a note. (Oh yeah, and don't forget me!)

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**The Welcoming Feast**

"All right there, Black?"

Kaneene Moody, dressed in official blue Auror's robes greeted Sirius as he descended the last steps leading from the castle and walked up to where she was waiting.

He gave her that crooked smile. "Better now," he said, obviously flirting. "So, give me the scoop, K," he said as they headed toward the twin statures of winged boars that flanked the road the carriages would be traveling up.

"Right. Well, you and I will be accompanying the carriages up and overseeing each group of students that gets off. Holmes is stationed inside the main entrance. I've got Dunstan, Evan, Brandon and Dixon stationed at intervals along the road. Shacklebolt and Ness will be stationed where the carriages are loading, and Dawlish, Watson and my uncle will be patrolling the Hogwarts Express platform area."

"I thought your uncle wanted to cover the entrance hall," Sirius said with a bit of surprise as they walked along the darkening road together.

Kaneene nodded. "He did, but I just couldn't see putting the first years through that. They're scared enough as it is," she said, an impish smile appearing as she spoke.

"I agree," Sirius said, grinning back at her. "You're uncle still scares me."

"Pansy," Kaneene quipped back at him in a whisper. Sirius didn't have the opportunity to reply as they had just encountered Evan, oldest of Kaneene's four cousins.

"Hey, K," he greeted her and then looked at Sirius and gave him a friendly smile. "Black."

"Evan." Sirius nodded a greeting back. "Everyone in position?" he asked, looking toward the platform a little further away where the Hogwarts Express would be arriving in a few moments, loaded with its precious cargo.

"Yes," replied Evan, "I think we're about as ready as we're ever going to be. I've got three more Aurors along for the ride on the train, just in case."

Kaneene nodded approvingly. "Good idea, Evan. That was a smart move."

Evan smiled at her. "Thanks, cuz."

All three of them looked back at the platform area at once as a whistle in the distance signaled the imminent arrival of the train.

" Righ' on time, as usual."

All three of them turned to look back at the voice that spoke to them, and then adjusted all their gazes slightly upward to look at the speaker.

Hagrid was walking toward them, on his way to meet the train as well, fulfilling his annual duties of escorting the first year students to the castle.

"Evenin' Sirius." Hagrid clapped Black on the shoulder in a friendly way, causing the tall animagus to take a step sideways to maintain his balance. "Kaneene, Evan." The gamekeeper nodded at each of them in turn. He glanced briefly at the cloudless sky overhead. "Good night fer crossin'," he commented.

"It should be a smooth trip," Kaneene replied.

Hagrid grinned at the auror from behind his great beard. "Well, they're never really 'xactly what yeh'd call smooth, now are they," he said cheerfully, "but I 'spose it's a good a night as any. He nodded firmly and then walked on. "Well, I'm off. I'll be seein' yeh at t' feast."

Kaneene watched Hagrid make his way toward the platform, where a billow of steam could be seen rising from just beyond the bend where the tracks rounded one of the nearby mountains. She turned back to her two companions after a moment. "Right, then. Shall we?"

Evan moved off to his position a little further back along the road to the school and Sirius and Kaneene headed for the staging area where the first of the Thestral drawn carriages were pulling into place. As she watched Hagrid's large form moving along the platform in the falling darkness, she suddenly had a sinking feeling and looked with mild alarm at Sirius.

"Black, who'd you assign to escort the first years with Hagrid across the lake?"

Sirius ran through the assignments in his mind quickly – he'd been thinking along the same lines as Kaneene when she'd asked her uncle to patrol the platform area and not wait inside the great hall to intimidate the already terrified eleven-year-olds, and had stationed the two least intimidating Aurors at the boat launch.

"Keath and Tonks," he answered, knowing that for some reason it wasn't going to be an answer that Kaneene liked.

Kaneene's eyes went wide. "You sent the least experienced person and that…..that…..klutz?" She reached up to rub her temples. "Oh, my head."

Sirius put a hand on her elbow reassuringly. "K, it'll be fine. You're brother is a lot more experienced than you give him credit for – he was pretty sharp at the Ministry that night."

"Sirius, he almost got himself killed," Kaneene reminded him quietly.

"Yeah, well, up against Malfoy that could've happened to anyone," Sirius replied.

Kaneene sighed, letting some of the concern out of her voice. "I suppose you're right."

Sirius gave her a small crooked smile. "Of course I am. Besides, you have to admit that sending Tonks with a bunch of kids is a better choice than sending your uncle. Half of them would die of fright, and the others would run screaming back onto the train."

The train Sirius spoke of was making ungodly squealing noises as the brakes engaged and the train slowed down as it neared the Hogsmeade station.

"Well," said Kaneene, resolve returning to her manner, "you ready?" she asked. She suddenly realized that Sirius was no longer standing beside her.

Kaneene smiled. "I'll take that as a yes," she said to the large, shaggy black dog that stood in the wizard's place. "Come on."

The auror walked down to meet the Hogwarts Express with her hand resting on the shoulders of the large black dog that trotted along by her side.

The students returning to Hogwarts from the previous year stepped off the train, many of them whispering excitedly or calling greetings to Hagrid as they passed. All of this was old hat to most of them, and the sights that met their eyes as they loaded themselves into the waiting carriages were, for the most part, nothing they hadn't seen before. But for the crowd of first years that had just shrugged into their school robes for the first time, and had stepped tentatively off the train, it was an awesome site indeed.

Calling to them to gather at the far end of the platform was the largest, hairiest man they had ever seen. Sweeping along the platform with practiced efficiency were a half dozen or so wizards dressed in the gray-blue robes of an Auror, and at the other end of the staging area were a large number of carriages moving under their own power or maybe being pulled by invisible horses. (A few students were dumbstruck by what they could actually see pulling the carriages that their classmates could not.)

It all appeared to be too much for a small dark-haired little girl with braids that stood frozen where she was, robes hanging loosely on her diminutive form, and too terrified to follow her classmates to where they were gathering around Hagrid. She stared in horror at the nightmare steeds that snorted and stomped in their harnesses a short way off, and gave a start when something furry pushed against her hand. Too scared to move, she turned frightened eyes to meet the soft brown ones of the biggest black dog she had ever seen in her life. It nudged her hand a second time, and mouth open in large canine grin, dropped and rolled over on it's back in an undignified way, obviously soliciting a tummy rub.

"Go ahead," said a female voice next to the little girl, "he'd love it if you'd pet him."

"Really?" The nervous first year looked up at a kind-looking woman with short dark hair, dressed in the robe of an Auror.

Kaneene smiled warmly at the girl and nodded at the dog on the ground where he was wagging his tail upside down.

The girl hesitated for a moment and then, just as many children are, she was drawn irresistibly to the bear-like dog. She leaned over to run a hand over the warm fur, and as the dog wriggled underneath her hand in obvious delight, she gave a little laugh and knelt next to the dog to engage in a two-handed belly rub.

After a moment she looked back up at Kaneene, the fear in her eyes now gone. "What's his name?" she asked, obviously taken with the great beast.

"Snuffles," Kaneene replied softly, "and I'm Kaneene. What's your name?"

"Julia," the girl answered from where she was now cooing at the dog that had sat up and was enjoying having her stroke his great shaggy head.

"Well, Julia," Kaneene said, " they're waiting for you to go to the boats." She indicated where Hagrid was gathering up the last of the first years.

"Boats? We have to go in a boat?" Some of Julia's anxiety had returned.

"Yes, but it'll be fun," Kaneene said reassuringly. "Wait until you see the castle all lit up at night."

"Really?" Julia tried to sound a little intrigued, but the croak that she emitted wasn't very convincing.

Kaneene nodded. "It's beautiful. A little scary the first time, but beautiful. Would you like to see it?"

Julia nodded but looked away at the black dog as she spoke in a voice barely more than a whisper. "I'm afraid of boats……my mum……she……the water…….,"her voice trailed off.

Kaneene placed a reassuring hand on the child's shoulder. "I see," she said softly and then she brightened. "Hey, I have an idea."

Julia looked up at her questioningly, not taking her hand off the head of the black dog she was now leaning against.

"Why don't I have Snuffles walk you down to the boat launch?" Kaneene suggested.

Julia's eyes went wide and a trace of excitement was now evident in her voice. "Really? Could he?"

Kaneene nodded and addressed the dog. "Snuffles, would you walk Julia down to the docks, and stay with her until she's safely in a boat?"

"Woof!"

"Good." Kaneene looked back at the little girl. "He'll go with you as far as the docks, and there will be two more Aurors like me there to help you."

"Are they as nice as you?" Julia inquired, giving Kaneene a tiny shy smile.

"Absolutely. One is my brother, so he'll take good care of you, and the other one has bright green hair."

The first year girl perked up a little more. "Green? Really?"

"Lime green." Kaneene raised her right hand solemnly. "I swear."

"Woof!"

Kaneene looked at the dog who had risen and was facing the group of students gathered around Hagrid. "You're right, Snuffles. You two should go."

Julia started to follow Snuffles away from Kaneene and then turned to speak to the woman once more. "He's really smart, isn't he?" she said, meaning the black dog.

Kaneene waived her off. "Nah, he's not all that bright, but he's kinda cute so I let him hang around." She looked pointedly at the dog.

Julia laughed and headed for the boat launch, accompanied by the dog that had done it's best to shoot the auror a dirty look before turning and bounding after the dark haired girl.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lorien was alternating between pacing across her sitting room and staring at the clock. The welcoming feast would be starting in just a few minutes, and all the professors and staff were supposed to be seated together to await the arrival of the returning students and then of the first years. That included her, and now it looked like she might be late.

She hated to be late. She couldn't help it – it was just one of those things that stressed her out.

Of course she didn't have far to go, it was just down the hall and around the corner, but still, if he didn't get here within the next minute, she wasn't going to risk any comments from McGonagall or Pomfrey. She would have to go without him.

"Ok. I'll give him one more minute," she said to herself as she focused on the second hand of the clock on the wall as it swept around the clock face. It moved smoothly down one side past the 3, across the 6 and steadily up past 9 and across the 12 once again. The minute passed. Then another.

Damn it, Severus.

Lorien grabbed the door handle and yanked it open, only to come face to face with the tall, darkly robed wizard standing on the other side. She would have scolded him for waiting until the last minute and stressing her out, but at that moment he took her hand and raised it, brushing it with his lips.

"Ben notan, paramicaan," Snape purred as he released her hand. "You look lovely this evening," he said softly. " Shall we?" He turned to head down the hall.

She shot a little sideways pout at him as she fell in beside him, walking quickly to keep up with the longer strides of the taller wizard. "We're going to be late," she said quietly.

He didn't look at her when he answered, but kept walking toward the great hall. "We are not going to be late, Lorien. I assure you that I will have you in your seat at the head table precisely one minute before the students are seated at their house tables."

Lorien studied him out of the corner of her eye. "You enjoy tormenting me, don't you?" It wasn't really a question.

Snape gave her a brief look sideway, but not so brief that Lorien didn't catch the tiniest bit of mischief in that look.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied simply, and then took a right instead of a left at the junction with the next hallway.

Lorien took a few quicker steps to catch him as she hurried alongside, determined not to be left scurrying in his wake. "Where are you going?" She whispered in an irritated fashion. "This way is longer. If you went left we could have just gone in the staff entrance near the head table."

Snape walked quickly onward, still not looking at her as she kept pace with him. "Lorien, I am quite familiar with the layout of this castle," he said coolly.

"But if we go this way we're going to have to walk by just about every upperclassman in Hogwarts, and then the first years in the entranceway, and then across the entire Great Ha……"

"Precisely."

Snape's black eyes met hers just for a moment and Lorien knew him well enough to know there was a hint of amusement there.

They walked past where the older students were getting ready to file into the great hall and continued quickly on.

She huffed at him softly. "All this just to ensure that we don't get to our seats a moment sooner than we have to?" she asked in a slightly exasperated way. She glanced quickly over at where the awe-struck first year students were gathering on the stairs and then stopped quickly as Snape halted in front of the large doors to the Great Hall.

"All of that," he said very quietly, so that only she could hear him, "is so that every last person in this castle can be quite certain that the loveliest witch at Hogwarts…….is with me."

Snape didn't see the blush that colored Lorien's cheeks as he turned forward and opened the great doors with a deft sweep of his hand - a wandless gesture obviously meant for her. He half turned back towards her. "After you, Sylvanesti," he purred, nodding slightly at the open doors.

Lorien gave him a smile that made him understand why he did some of these idiotic things that he did, and turned to walk into the Great Hall. Snape fell in next to her, eyeing the staff that were already largely seated at the head table. Part of him would have loved more than anything to walk past them all with her on his arm, but well, he did have an image to keep up, didn't he? He settled for walking across the length of the room close enough to her that his black robes brushed more than a little against her purple ones.


	6. Gossip

A/N I have kept Forsythia as Prof. Sprouts real name to be consistent with the earlier stories. We didn't find out that her name was Pomona until later. (I happen to like Forsythia, myself.)

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Gossip

Poppy Pomfrey and Forsythia Sprout always sat next to each other at dinner if they could help it. They'd worked at Hogwarts for a number of years together, and had struck a close friendship almost from the first day they had met. There wasn't much that they didn't know about each other after so many years, and between the two of them, there wasn't much about the goings-on in the castle that they didn't know either.

Tonight they sat next to each other at the head table, heads bowed slightly together so they could converse without all the other staff hearing everything they were saying. A voice interrupted them as they whispered, and both women looked up to see the headmaster walking by them on his way to his seat in the center of the table.

"Good evening," he said, appearing ever so slightly amused.

Both women returned the greeting.

"Anything interesting going on?" Dumbledore inquired, leaning slightly toward the two witches and lowering his voice as well.

"Nothing yet," Sprout replied. Madame Pomfrey shrugged in agreement next to her.

"I see," said Dumbledore quietly. "I quite expect that might change in the next few moments." He glanced in the direction of the witch who was now approaching the table, voluminous red hair cascading across the shoulders of her emerald robes, and towing a small blond boy in hand.

The boy waived excitedly. "Hi, Albus!"

Dumbledore returned the wave and smiled at Noah Perkins as he went with his mother to sit at the end of the table, and then turned back to Pomfrey and Sprout, who were chatting away, discussing the Care of Magical Creatures professor.

"Marlina's such a dear, don't you think?" Sprout was saying to a nodding Pomfrey.

"Absolute sweetheart," Pomfrey agreed, "and that Noah –couldn't you just eat him up? He's so ador……..Oh!" Pomfrey started and then dropped her voice another notch.

"Did you see that?" she fairly hissed at Sprout, who along with Dumbledore, turned to look where Remus Lupin had just walked into the Great Hall through the staff entrance, conversing in a pleasant way with none other than Ariel Sinistra. She was dressed in elegant green robes covered with small glittering stars.

"Oh my!" Sprout clutched at her heart and whipped back around to whisper to Pomfrey. "That snake! What's she doing with him?"

"I don't know," whispered Pomfrey harshly, but she can't be up to anything good!"

"I would say," Dumbledore commented before moving on toward his seat, "that you are not the only ones who are of that opinion."

Sprout and Pomfrey turned in unison to look at Marlina Perkins, who, judging by the unhappy expression on her face as she watched Remus talking to Sinistra, was sharing the exact same opinion.

They might have exchanged more commentary on the fact that Lupin had walked in with Sinistra and not Perkins, but at that moment the main doors flew open and two more people swept into the Great Hall.

Sprout leaned sideways to whisper to Pomfrey as they watched the pair of Snape and Desjardins make their way toward the head table. "Check that out."

Poppy gave a barely perceptible nod. "Quite an entrance he made."

"Better than all that slinking around that he does," Sprout whispered. "You normally never know when the sneaky bastard is going to be standing right behind you!"

"Forsythia!" Pomfrey hissed amusedly.

Both women giggled quietly at the audacity of Sprout's comment.

"So, Poppy," Sprout went on, watching Lorien approach the table with Snape looming next to her, "you spend a lot of time with her - what is it that she sees in him, anyway?"

"No idea." Pomfrey rolled her eyes a little and raised her hands in a brief gesture of surrender. "Can't fathom it, really. All I know is he scares the shit out of me."

Both women broke into a fit of schoolgirl giggles again before Pomfrey went on. "I say that if she finds him intriguing, then all the luck to her. I'm just thankful that I don't have to deal with him about our supply of potions like I used to."

Sprout nodded knowingly. "Tell me. If I had to tell him about how you can't rush wolfsbane one more time…….thank goodness Lorien is the one to come get the monthly ingredients for him most of the time now."

Both women greeted Lorien warmly and nodded at Snape as they walked past and were seated together at the opposite end of the table from where Perkins had settled herself with her little boy.

Sprout regarded the Nemorosi witch for a moment, who was obviously following something Snape was saying with great interest. She leaned closer to Pomfrey again, her whisper barely audible. "So, tell me…….do you think she and he are……"

"What?" Pomfrey asked, her attention on the doors to the hall again.

Sprout's whisper was more insistent. "You know!" She gave Pomfrey a meaningful look.

Understanding dawned on Poppy. "Oh that! Oh well, there's really no question, actually."

Sprout clamped her hand over her mouth briefly as she gave a slight gasp and then looked back at the witch still engaged in conversation with the Potions Master. "Are you sure?"

Pomfrey took on a knowing air, waving her hand in a slightly dismissive gesture as she answered, "Oh, absolutely. Stays in the dungeon most nights, that one does."

Sprout shook her head, watching Lorien sympathetically. "Poor dear. I just can't imagine….."

"Well, unfortunately I can," Pomfrey interrupted with her own whisper. "Caught them snogging in her office late one night when I got up to grab a headache remedy."

Dumbledore eyed the two women over his half-moon glasses as Sprout let out a horrified yet delighted squeal, and then turned back to speak to Professor Flitwick on his other side.

Both women snickered and covered their mouths in silent laughter as they saw the amused look the headmaster had given them.

Pomfrey recovered first and tapped Sprout on the arm to direct her attention back to the doors, where the older students had started streaming into the hall.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Remus walked away from Ariel Sinistra and headed for the empty chair next to Marlina, smiling at the way Noah was waving to him.

"Remus! Remus, sit next to mum." The little boy pointed at the chair next to his mother, overflowing with excitement at getting to attend the Hogwarts feast. "We saved you a seat," he said proudly.

Remus affectionately tousled Noah's hair on the way by. "Thanks, Noah," he said warmly, and then turned to smile at the boy's mother, sliding into the chair next to her.

"You look amazing, Marlie," he said, reaching for a flagon of pumpkin juice to fill his glass. "That color is great on you," he said as he turned to offer to fill her goblet and found her expression a little frostier than he would have expected after such a complement.

"Thanks," she said coolly, " and is this color great on her?" She indicated where Sinistra was seated at the far end of the table, clad in green as well and talking to Vector.

Remus looked at her in a puzzled way for a minute and then rolled his eyes at her. "Stop that. You know I can barely stand the woman. I'll have to tell you what she said to me later."

Marlina let it drop for the moment, wanting to enjoy her first welcoming feast at Hogwarts, and knowing that she really didn't have to worry about how Remus felt about her. "Sorry, I just get a little jealous sometimes," she whispered to him.

Remus smiled warmly at her, and leaned to speak close to her ear. "I'm glad that you care about me enough to be jealous. I feel the same way about you." He would have gazed into her eyes a bit longer if at that moment the great doors hadn't opened again.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

The older students had already gone into the great hall, as the rest of the Aurors stationed at Hogwarts gathered next to Sirius and Kaneene. Behind them, Professor McGonagall was giving last minute instructions to the group of first year students. They were almost ready to enter the hall, and Kaneene was looking around frantically.

"Where are they?" She asked Sirius for the third time.

"Dunno," he answered, shaking his head, " After that incident in the boats they probably went…."he broke off to look past her down the hall.

Kaneene whipped around to see what Sirius and the other Aurors were staring at, and just about lost it when she saw Keath and Tonks, still absolutely soaked to the bone, jogging up to them in dripping robes. Tonk's lime green hair was plastered about her head.

Keath smiled sheepishly at his sister. "Hi K. We made it on time."

Kaneene narrowed her eyes looking from one young Auror to the next. "I don't really want to know, do I?"

Tonks shook her head and wrinkled up her nose, "Nah, you really don't."

Kaneene took a deep breath and let it out, before she whispered caustically to the two bedraggled younger Aurors. "Fine, get dried off and fall in." She turned back to Sirius.

"I'm going to kill them later."

"I'll help you," Sirius replied, but it was with a large grin on his face, "but for now, hey, at least we got them all here safely."

Kaneene lightened up almost instantly, finding that Black's good mood was infectious. "You're really looking forward to this, aren't you?"

Sirius nodded and his voice was a little softer when he answered her. "I never thought I'd ever walk through these doors in a welcome way again……" his voice trailed off as he realized Minerva McGonagall was standing next to him.

"We're ready when you are, Sirius," she said with a kind smile, and she touched the tall wizard's arm affectionately for just a moment.

Sirius nodded and turned to face the doors to the great hall.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Pomfrey and Sprout both gave a little wave to where Hagrid had just been seated near Professors Vector and Sinistra, noting as they did with surprise that Mad-Eye Moody had also slipped in the staff door and had stationed himself in an inconspicuous way in a corner behind the head table. Well, as inconspicuous as Mad-Eye could be. They turned their attention back to the great doors, where Minerva would be bringing the new class of first years through.

The doors opened as expected, but this year, McGonagall was not the only one escorting the students in for the Sorting. First to come through the doors was a group of a dozen or so Aurors dressed in blue robes, that filed in neatly in pairs that split off and moved down either side of the great hall to take up positions along the walls.

Both Pomfrey and Sprout gave each other a knowing little smile, as they watched the next pair to enter. "Ironic isn't it?" Sprout said, Pomfrey nodding in agreement.

"That he would end up head of security after being an escaped convict?"

"No," replied Sprout, "that he'd hook up with that Auror."

"No!" Pomfrey gasped in a delighted whisper, turning to appraise the woman in blue robes walking toward the table. "Wasn't she a student here back a ways?"

Sprout nodded. "Kaneene Moody."

"Mad-eye's niece?"

"Yes," Sprout continued, "Hufflepuff…….kind of a mischief maker if I remember correctly."

A cheer had now gone up in the great hall, starting with the group of sixth-year students sitting around Harry Potter, spreading quickly down the Gryffindor table and over to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. There were even a few younger students that hooted at the Slytherin table where Draco Malfoy didn't bother to silence them, as he normally would have done.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sirius Black wanted desperately to keep up a professional appearance and make a good impression, but he was sure he was going to burst out laughing as he walked into the great hall next to Moody – especially since the thought of James seeing him as head of Hogwarts security had just crossed his mind.

He managed a sidewise glance at the Auror alongside him, and was able to marshal control of himself by taking a leaf out of her book. Kaneene was all business right now, striding along with a confident step and serious expression. He wasn't going to let her show him up, and he pulled together his composure as he walked with her up the center of the room.

It all fell apart when he drew level with the Gryffindor table and the wild cheer went up from one end, spreading quickly along the entire table.

Sirius tried valiantly to keep a straight face with only one thought in mind.

Potter.

It would've been Potter that started it.

Now the cheer had swept across the Great Hall, and out of the corner of his eye Sirius could see Harry laughing and clapping, flanked on either side by Ron and Hermione.

It was just the type of thing James would have done.

Damn!

Sirius started to loose the battle to maintain his composure and a large grin began spreading its way across his face. It didn't help that he caught a glimpse of Moody starting to break down and smile next to him, but the thing that finally sent him over the edge when he looked up at all the staff clapping, was the sight of Lupin laughing at him from the head table.

Sirius sniggered for a moment, and then broke out in hearty laughter that carried him all the way to his seat next to Remus.

They both piped down, as did everyone in the great hall when Professor McGonagall came forward carrying the Sorting hat, and leading the group of first years that all looked liked they very much wished to be somewhere else.

Sirius whispered to Remus as McGonagall set the hat on the stool before the head table. "Were we ever that little?" He asked, watching the students all trying not to be the ones in front.

Remus nodded, whispering back. "A long time ago, Padfoot. Damn, that was stressful."

They stopped whispering and joined in the silence that filled the hall for just a moment before the hat shivered a little on the stool, and then the large tear near the brim opened up like a mouth, and the Sorting Hat began it's new song.

_Oh, I may not be a beauty_

_You'd like to wear upon your head_

_So, listen and I'll tell you_

_A little Hogwarts story instead_

_A long time ago, just where you sit_

_Four friends did discuss their aims_

_To open a school where wizardry'd rule_

_And the houses would bear their names_

_The four of them were best of friends_

_No better wizards could be found_

_All had their claim to fortune and fame_

_And to the others each was bound_

_When it came time to open the school_

_Each founder did decide_

_That they would teach the ones who had _

_The traits that gave them pride_

_Old Slytherin liked cunning best_

_Along with clever ambition_

_Dear Hufflepuff took those who toiled _

_With whom loyalty was tradition_

_Bright Ravenclaw taught all to whom_

_Quick learning was a skill_

_Bold Gryffindor he took the ones_

_To whom danger was a thrill_

_When I was young, so was this school_

_And everything went well_

_But as time passed, I fell apart_

_And the friendships did as well_

_Old Salazar, he was obsessed_

_With blood as pure as snow_

_But the other three could not agree_

_And so Slytherin he did go_

_Now you sit here_

_I must decide_

_Into which house_

_Each will reside_

_Tonight I have two tasks at hand_

_I will sort you, that's my chore_

_But I have another message_

_That I hope you won't ignore_

_Take pride in the color of your house_

_Be it red, yellow, green, or blue_

_But ignoring the strength of a school united_

_Is something I hope you'll never do_

_Now, if you dare step up in front_

_Of the entire Hogwarts throng_

_Put me on your head, I'll let you know_

_Just where you belong!_

The entire room broke into wild applause as Professor McGonagall stepped up next to the hat again, unrolling a length of parchment, and turning to address the first years. "When I call your name, you will please step up, place the hat on your head and sit on the stool to be sorted."

"ALTON, FREDERICKA."

A hushed whisper ran through the first years as they realized the sorting would be alphabetical, and a thin girl, tall for her age, stepped forward to pick up the hat. The way she scrunched up her face as she placed it on her head made her look as if she expected it to bite her ears. She sat there for about seven or eight seconds before the hat opened its mouth again.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

A cheer went up from the Hufflepuff table, and Fredericka Alton nearly slid off the stool with relief as she headed for her new house.

Remus and Sirius watched with interest as Ashbury, Sylvia went to Ravenclaw, and Baker, Thomas also went to Hufflepuff.

"BARRETT, JULIA."

A small girl in robes slightly too large for her with dark braids stepped up to the stool.

"Betcha this one's going to Gryffindor," Sirius whispered to Remus.

"What makes you think so?" Remus asked in return, thinking the tiny trembling girl lifting the hat didn't look much like Gryffindor material.

"Oh, just a hunch," Sirius said, thinking of the guts it took for an eleven year old who had lost her mother to a drowning accident, and was terrified of water, to get in the boats for the crossing to the castle.

The sorting hat considered the girl for a moment and then shouted to the hall again.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

By the time Zervos, Despina, had made her way to the Slytherin table, the Headmaster was on his feet surveying the many faces in the hall. He raised his hands in a welcoming gesture. "Another year begins here at Hogwarts, and I bid welcome to you all. As I think it is likely that our new group of first years could probably do with a little refreshment, I encourage you all to tuck in!"

Later, as the prefects were leading their new charges off to their dormitories, Sirius, being very full and content, was leaning back on two legs in his chair and feeling a great deal of warmth toward all of his fellow staff members. Ok, so most of his fellow staff members. It was at this point that an idea that he liked very much was beginning to creep into his brain.

"Uh oh."

Sirius looked at Remus. "What?"

"I know that look – it means you're up to no good," Remus said, his manner slightly accusing, yet there was a smile slipping it's way across his face.

"Yeah, well, no one would know that better than you, Moony," Sirius said, clapping his friend on the arm as he let his chair down with a 'thunk' and stood. "You know what we need right now, Professor Lupin?" He asked, looking about him on all sides.

"No, but I suppose you're going to enlighten me, aren't you?" Remus sighed.

Sirius broke into his most roguish grin.

"We need to have a party."

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A/N: Be sure to let me know what you think about the Sorting Hat song!


	7. The Team BUilding Effort

**The Team Building Effort**

"Did you say 'party '?" Remus asked, not quite sure if he'd heard right.

"Yeah. Party," Sirius replied, now getting caught up with the idea. He started looking around for the headmaster.

"Padfoot, you know what happened at the last party," Remus teased.

Sirius shot his best friend an 'it-wasn't-my-fault-half-the-school-was-poisoned' look and managed to catch Dumbledore's eye.

"Yes, Sirius? What can I do for you?" Dumbledore asked.

Sirius told him his idea.

"Tonight?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.

"Yes." Sirius nodded enthusiastically.

"Sirius, surely it wouldn't be wise to keep the students up late the night before the first day of classes," Dumbledore admonished gently.

"I meant the staff. Remus and I were thinking it would be nice for the staff to have a little get together in the teacher's lounge as a team building effort." Sirius watched the headmaster carefully while he considered the younger wizard's proposal.

Dumbledore peered closely at Sirius over his half-moon spectacles. "I assume that this 'team building effort' will probably involve a fair quantity of Ogden's Firewhisky and a large platter of chocolate chip cookies from the kitchens?"

Sirius's crooked smile started to appear. "Probably."

"Excellent," Dumbledore said with a twinkle. "I shall alert the rest of the staff if you will see to the arrangements. Shall we say, half an hour?"

Although most of the staff seemed a little taken aback at first by the idea of a staff social gathering after the feast, most of them decided to at least put in an appearance, and several of them thought it was a very good idea indeed, including Hagrid, Sinistra and Vector who had been seated together at the end of the table.

Dumbledore watched as Mad-Eye stumped toward him, electric blue eye roving across the people remaining in the room. "Alastor, you'll join us for a nightcap in the staff room won't you?"

"I'd like to Dumbledore, but I'm on duty tonight," Moody growled. "Tonight's first shift is being covered by Nymphadora and my youngest nephew – both good Aurors mind you," he continued, "but, well I figured a little extra experience out there might not hurt."

"I completely understand, Alastor," Dumbledore replied, "perhaps the next time." He turned to where Marlina was shaking her head as Lupin was trying to convince her to go along. It was apparent that she'd like to go, but was reluctant to do so because of Noah. "If it would help at all, Marlina, I'd be happy to send for Rachel Davies," Dumbledore offered. Rachel was the Ravenclaw student that had been tutoring Noah along with Hermione the previous year. 'I'm sure she wouldn't mind watching him for an hour or so."

"That's a very good idea, Albus," Remus said, jumping on the idea at once. It was quite obvious that he wanted Marlina to go.

Marlina shook her head, smiling at where Noah was talking to Sirius, trying to convince him that he should be allowed to go to the party too. "Thanks, but no. I've got a full day of classes tomorrow and I've got to get Noah to bed. Besides, if Rachel is any sort of a Ravenclaw she's going to be curled up with her transfiguration books already."

"That's probably true," Dumbledore agreed, smiling. "Well, I have a feeling this won't be the last party that Sirius will plan. Good night, Marlina."

Remus turned back to Marlie after Dumbledore walked a short distance away to where Sprout and Pomfrey were standing. "Alright, I'll see you at breakfast, then?"

Marlina nodded as Noah came running back up to them. "You'll see us both at breakfast, Remus!" he said, clearly trying to be included.

"Right you are, Noah," Remus replied, holding his arms out for a hug and then embracing the small boy when Noah flung his arms around him, "But, not if you don't head off to bed here pretty quick."

"Okay," Noah said reluctantly. "Night Remus. Night Sirius." He gave them one last wistful look and then followed his mother out of the great hall.

Remus watched both Perkins leave and then noticed the odd look on his best friend's face. "What?"

Sirius nodded to where the headmaster was heading toward Lorien as she was walking out the staff entrance with Snape. "This should be interesting."

Dumbledore gave a warm smile to his resident healer and Potions Master as he approached them, and their attention turned to him from the conversation they were having. "Ah, good. I'm glad I caught you," Dumbledore said to them. "A quick word?"

"What is it, Headmaster?" Lorien's voice echoed the concern on her face.

"Oh, not to worry," Dumbledore replied, "I just wanted to make sure that you both knew that the staff was having a little get together in the staff room in about half an hour."

"Get together? Who's idea was this?" Snape asked quietly, his eyes flicking a suspicious glance in Black's direction.

Lorien cut him off a bit. "What a marvelous idea, Headmaster. Kind of a camaraderie building thing?"

"More or less," Dumbledore said, amusement evident in his voice.

"Excellent," Lorien replied, "I expect we will see you shortly, then."

"We, Lorien?" Snape's voice was dangerously low, and Dumbledore winced a little in anticipation of the outburst from Snape that tone of voice was often a prelude to.

Snape's voice rose a little. "You're assuming that I…….."

Lorien gave him a warm smile. "Oh, get off it, Severus," she said softly, "one glass of wine with the staff won't kill you."

Dumbledore thought he'd best excuse himself when Snape's eyes narrow dangerously and bore into the blue ones of the Nemorosi witch. He was just opening his mouth to do so when Snape spoke again.

"Fine." He uttered the single word as if it were painful to do so.

"Lovely," Lorien said, touching the Potions Master's arm affectionately for a fleeting moment. "Shall I meet you there in half an hour?"

"Fine." The inner battle that the dark robed wizard was waging was obviously affecting his ability to produce a complete sentence.

"Excellent." She flashed him another bright smile and then turned back to the Headmaster. "I think I'll just nip over there and see if there's anything I can do to help," she said, indicating where Remus and Sirius were standing.

Snape watched her go, silently fuming for a moment and not noticing where Dumbledore was biting his lower lip to keep from smiling. Snape sounded irritated and a little confused. He dropped his voice, addressing the headmaster as he watched Lorien leave.

"Would you please explain to me," he began slowly, "what just happened?"

"I believe that you just agreed to attend the staff party with Lorien," Dumbledore answered mildly.

"And why, in Merlin's name, would I do that?" Irritation was still seeping into Snape's voice, and the question appeared to be addressed to himself as much as the headmaster.

Dumbledore smiled as he shrugged and then clapped Snape briefly on the shoulder. "Because that, my friend, is an ancient and powerful spell she weaves over you. Its mysteries are even beyond my ken."

Snape closed his eyes and let out a deflating sigh. "It makes my head hurt."

Dumbledore nodded understandingly, still smiling as he walked away.

Sirius was grinning at her when Lorien arrived where he and Remus were standing together. "So, did you manage to talk old Severus into coming to our little gathering?"

"Actually I did."

Remus risked a quick glance at the wizard across the room. "He doesn't look too happy about it."

Lorien waved him off with a smile. "Oh, he'll be fine. It's just that he was supposed to have hall duty tonight, and he gets a little cranky if he misses an opportunity to hand out detentions.

Sirius sniggered out loud, while Remus merely smiled.

"Where's Kaneene?" Lorien asked, suddenly realizing the Auror was gone.

"She's gone to sort out a few issues with Keath and Tonks – she'll probably be along a little later," Remus replied.

"So," Lorien asked brightly, steering the conversation in a different direction, "can I do anything to help?"

"Yeah, actually you can, Mimsy," Sirius answered her, laughter visible in his eyes. "How about grabbing a couple bottles of wine out of old Sniv…..er Snape's stores for the party. Not everyone will want firewhiskey."

Lorien narrowed her eyes as she answered, both at Sirius's near slip at resorting to calling Severus something less than pleasant, and at they way he'd addressed her as 'Mimsy'. "How about we keep the peace and I grab a couple bottles of wine from my own stores?"

"Great!" Sirius said in return. "Moony and I will get the firewhiskey and round up some snacks from the kitchen. We'll see you back at the staff room in a few minutes." He headed off toward the kitchen, where Remus followed after shaking his head and rolling his eyes before he turned away from Lorien.

Lorien returned to her room just beyond the infirmary and considered her wine rack for a moment. She picked up several bottles and put them down again, finally deciding on a bottle of Amontillado, and three bottles of red, including an Amarone that Severus had been pestering her to open nearly since he'd found out that she preferred red wine. She'd planned on saving it for a bit more of a special occasion than an impromptu staff party, but uncorking this bottle that he'd been coveting might just make suffering through the gathering worth his while.

Lorien made her way to the staff room and walked in where several of the staff were already conversing convivially, and where Remus and Sirius had set out a several trays of snacks along with a few bottles of Ogden's best. She handed them the sherry and two of the reds, just as Hagrid strode over to the table with two large jugs and set them on the table as well. It gave her a chance to slip the last bottle behind her back a little.

"That'd be some of Rosmerta's finest," Hagrid said, pointing at the mead. "Been savin' it for the righ' occasion – spose this is as good as any," he finished, pouring himself a large tankard full. "Cheers!"

Lorien moved away from the table where Hagrid and Sirius were now toasting each other, and then each new arrival at the staff room. She smiled at Minerva where she was chatting with Sprout and Pomfrey over sherry and nodded at Flitwick where he was speaking animatedly to Remus and Dumbledore. The door opened, and Ariel Sinistra walked in, looking like she was trying very hard to be patient with Sibyll Trelawney, who must have actually decided to venture down out of the Divination tower and was now rambling on about some nonsense or other.

"To Sibyll Trelawney!" Hagrid had interjected his next toast across the room, "best Seer Howarts ever had."

"Yes, well that's not saying a great deal, is it?" Lorien heard Minerva say under her breath, eliciting an outburst of barely concealed sniggers from Sprout and Pomfrey.

"And to Ariel Sinistra," Sirius called out, pausing to toss back another swig of whiskey, "star professor of the Astronomy tower."

Hagrid and Sirius both chuckled in amusement at Sirius's little play on words and went back to their conversation about Quidditch.

Lorien caught Sinistra's eye and gave her a brief look of sympathy before Trelawney turned her head in her direction. Sinistra rolled her eyes and then flashed a quick commiserative smile at Lorien, while Trelawney approached the Hogwarts healer.

"My dear," she started in with her usual airiness, staring at Lorien through her oversized, thick glasses, "I foresaw you being in the dungeon this evening, not here at the party."

'_Well, it wouldn't be terribly hard to guess that typically Snape would skip the festivities and that I would be with him, now would it,'_ Lorien thought to herself, _'you old fraud.'_

"Yes, Sibyll, well, both Severus and I decided to come to the party at the last minute," Lorien replied.

Trelawney stared dramatically at the staff room ceiling, as if she were gazing upon the heavens. "Ah, yes, I should have understood…….with the retrograde status of both Venus and Mercury, it would be the time dear Severus would most likely do something out of character, don't you agree, Ariel?"

Trelawney turned to Sinistra who agreed, "Oh, er, yes, absolutely, Sibyll."

Lorien was pretty sure that Sibyll missed the sarcasm in Sinistra's voice altogether as she pulled a face for Lorien's benefit, broke onto a smile and followed the Divination teacher to get herself a drink.

"The heck with Venus and Mercury," a woman said quietly next to Lorien, who looked around to find herself now cornered by Poppy and Forsythia. "I would say," Pomfrey continued, pausing for an instant to take a sip of sherry, "that it's much more likely he agreed to be here because he feared he might end up in that cold dank dungeon all by his lonesome tonight if he didn't show."

Both women were smiling and obviously giving her a bit of good- natured grief, but Lorien felt her face flush. Sprout put a hand affectionately on her arm. "You know we're just having a bit of fun with you, don't you, love?" All three of them turned to where the sound of the door closing caught their attention.

Sprout and Pomfrey stifled giggles and leaned toward Lorien in a conspiratorial way. "You know, he rarely comes to staff get- togethers," Sprout whispered, "so, however you managed to drag him out of that subterranean haunt of his…good for you."

Lorien didn't get a chance to reply, because at that moment the voices of Sirius and Hagrid, (who had both obviously had enough to drink at this point for the early effects to be evident,) rang out across the room.

"SNAPE!"

Coming through the door, Snape was obviously not aware that each newcomer had been toasted in turn. He cast a wary eye toward Black, and then frowned a bit when the two cried out again, raising their mugs.

"To the Potions Master!" At this point they both returned to filling each other's tankard again.

Lorien suppressed a giggle, along with the other two witches, and then excused herself and started making her way to where Severus had crossed the room to stand alongside Dumbledore.

"Ah, Severus," said Dumbledore warmly, extending an arm in welcome to the younger wizard. "Just in time." He turned away for a second or two and then turned back to hand Snape a glass of wine. " Filius and I were just debating what wine you would serve with something like Kung pao chicken, and we need your expert opinion."

"And what are each of you suggesting?" Snape asked smoothly, raising the glass the headmaster had handed him and casually regarding the contents he was swirling lightly around the glass.

Flitwick spoke up first. "Well, it is a bit of a tricky thing if you ask me, but I'm no expert. I'd say Pinot Noir – it's always a safe bet if you're unsure."

Snape considered Flitwick's answer, nodding absently as he sipped the wine in his glass. "And you, Albus?" He glanced at the headmaster.

Dumbledore smiled. "Forgive me, Filius, if I say I think you are off on the wrong track, but I would venture to say a blush rose."

"Interesting," Snape said noncommittally. He paused for a moment and then drew his attention from his glass back to the two waiting men. "I would not go with the Pinot, although I do agree, Filius, when in doubt, Pinot is usually a safe bet." He turned back toward Dumbledore. "I think that you're a little closer, Albus. I might even go so far out on a limb as to say that take out Kung Pao might be the one time I would consider forgiving somebody for serving white zinfandel."

"So, tell us," Dumbledore inquired, "what would you suggest, Severus?"

Snape's eyes never left his wineglass as he spoke. "Why don't we ask Mistress Lorien which wine she would serve with Kung Pao chicken?"

He turned toward a startled Lorien and watched her expectantly, knowing he had caught her off guard. She didn't know that he'd seen her approach the group in the reflection of his glass. "Well?" he asked her, noting as he did that she was holding something partially hidden in the folds of her robes.

"Kung Pao Chicken?" Lorien repeated. Damn Severus. Always putting her off her guard. Always testing her, teasing her, challenging her…..and she loved it. It kept things between them interesting to say the least. Well, she didn't have an answer as to how he knew she was standing behind him, but she had an answer to his wine question.

Her answer had to wait for a moment as the door to the staff room opened and closed again.

"HOOCH!" Sirius and Hagrid cried out together.

Rolanda Hooch looked a little startled until she saw the glasses raised in her direction. She made her way to the table as it became apparent that Sirius and Hagrid had had more than a little to drink by this point. Hagrid was sounding as if he was becoming a little choked up. "To a great lady, an' the best flight teacher," he called out.

Not to be left out, Sirius also toasted the flight instructor. "To Madame Hooch, aviator extraordinaire."

Hooch had by this time grabbed a mug of mead with Sirius and Hagrid and toasted them back before downing a large draught. "I hear you're a pretty decent flyer yourself, Black. Maybe on the weekend we could set up a little three on three and you could show me what you've got," Hooch taunted good-naturedly.

Lorien turned back to the three waiting wizards.

"Reisling."

Snape raised an eyebrow at her.

Lorien knew the game – he was trying to make her doubt herself but she was going to stand fast on this one.

"Yes. A light fruity one," she stated confidently, and then waited to see Snape's reaction.

"Well, is she right?" Flitwick asked Snape

"Filius, there is no absolute wrong or right in pairing wine……."

"In your opinion, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, smiling now.

"Mistress Lorien, it would appear, would have the most satisfactory answer," Snape said coolly, and he drained the last sip of wine in his glass.

Dumbledore knew that if anyone else in the room but Lorien had rolled their eyes at Snape like she just did, the next thing they would have done would not have been to laugh. Lorien did laugh lightly and then pointed to the glass he was holding. "What are you drinking?"

Dumbledore and Flitwick found themselves interested in the Potions Master's answer. The headmaster hadn't said anything when he'd handed the glass of red over.

"This? Oh, a glass of rioja - the Conde de Valdemar that you like. It came from your rooms, did it not?"

Dumbledore and Flitwick shared a look and then both went to retrieve the bottle to see if Snape was right.

Snape didn't bother to tell them that it was as much Lorien's predictability as his familiarity with the wine that was one of her favorites that led him to the correct answer.


	8. First Drop

First Drop

"Well," Snape began, now standing alone with Lorien for the moment, and absently toying with the empty glass in his hand, "happy now?"

"Of course," she replied evenly, "but don't think that you're getting out of here that quick." She stood on tiptoe a little to whisper closer to him. "I have something for you."

Snape quirked an eyebrow up at her comment and then glanced at the bottle of wine she had removed from the folds of her robes and presented to him. He eyed the label carefully and then looked back up at her. "That's quite some carrot you're dangling," he said nonchalantly, looking around the room a little with feigned indifference.

"Interested?" She asked.

"Of course," he replied matter-of-factly, "but I'd be even more interested if we were someplace where it was just you, me and that bottle," he said softly.

Lorien frowned slightly, continuing to speak in a hushed tone. "Severus, it wouldn't hurt for you to stay for a little longer. You've only been here about twenty minutes."

"Yes, well if I stay long enough maybe I'll have the pleasure of Sirius Black toasting my health again," he whispered sarcastically.

"Would you play nice, just for once?" Lorien asked, a little exasperation creeping into her voice.

Snape regarded her for a long moment and then reached out and gently extracted the bottle from her hand. "Now, where would be the fun in that?" he asked, banishing the empty wine glass he'd been holding as he spoke. He snapped his fingers, conjuring two fresh glasses. He offered them to Lorien, who took them from where he held the stems between his fingers, and then drew his wand, tapped the bottle of Amarone with it to remove the cork, and poured each of them a glass.

"MOODY!"

Hagrid and Sirius had happily announced the arrival of Kaneene Moody to the staff room.

Sirius raised his glass. "To the loveliest Auror in all of Britain!"

"Here, here!" Hagrid added enthusiastically, spilling mead as he overzealously raised his tankard in a toast.

"I wish they'd stop shouting."

Lorien turned to where Remus was walking toward her and Severus, laughing but massaging one ear with a finger. "Cookie?" he held out a hand that had a napkin with several chocolate chip cookies on it.

Lorien took one with a word of thanks but Snape held up a hand in refusal. "Thank you, Lupin, but I'm afraid they aren't my first choice to accompany Amarone."

"Accompany what?" Lupin asked curiously.

"Valpolicella della Amarone," a woman's voice said smoothly. The trio looked to where Ariel Sinistra was standing next to them. "It's a very fine Italian red," she added.

Snape narrowed his eyes at the new arrival, dislike of the troublemaking Astronomy professor evident in his expression. He could certainly tolerate conversation with Lupin if he had to, but Sinistra? He wasn't going to play that nice. He glanced at where Dumbledore was still chatting with Flitwick and decided to make good his escape. "I believe the headmaster needs me at the moment," he said, mostly to Lorien, "would you excuse me?" He stepped out of their group and walked away.

Sinistra sighed resignedly as she watched Snape leave. "I'm not surprised…I haven't spoken with him yet the way I did with the two of you," she said quietly.

"Yes, well I wouldn't lose much sleep over it," Lupin said cordially.

"Don't worry about it, Ariel," Lorien added. "Wine, anyone?" she asked, holding the bottle up.

"I think I will," Sinistra said, giving Lorien a smile. "Just let me grab a glass," she said, turning toward Remus. "Professor Lupin?"

She waited on his answer with baited breath.

'_**Say yes, say yes.'**_

'_Quiet!'_

"Why not?" Remus said, nodding at Sinistra to get him a glass as well. "She seems to be making an effort, huh?" He jerked his head back over his shoulder at where Sinistra was getting glasses.

"Yes, as surprising as that is, she seems to be trying," Lorien agreed. She looked around the room. "It would be nice if we could all get along this well all the time."

Ariel turned from Lupin and Desjardins, and making her way a few feet away to the table that held the party supplies, chose a wine glass.

'_**Can you believe the luck?'**_

'_Hardly.'_

'_**Do you still have the nerve to do it?'**_

'_Of course!'_

'_**You know, Dumbledore wouldn't like this.'**_

'_Do you think I give a Bundimun's ass what he likes?'_

'_**Not really.'**_

'_Then stop pestering me!'_

'_**Can't say I didn't warn you.'**_

'_Shut it.'_

Ariel had made up her mind as to her course of action long ago, and had been very, very patient up until this….._opportunity_ presented itself. Surely retrograde Mercury, ever known as the trickster Hermes to the Greeks, was smiling upon her this night. She took advantage of the confounding energies of her own ruling planet, and quickly pulled the second wine glass from where it had been hidden in her robes before she returned to where an unsuspecting Lupin was waiting.

"Here we are," Sinistra said cheerily, presenting two glasses in front of her. She held her breath as she watched Lorien pour wine into each of them, and then handed the one in her left hand to Remus.

'_First element,'_ she thought to herself as she held the glass out. _'Second element,_' she continued as Lupin's fingers brushed hers when he took the glass. She watched him intently over the rim of the glass she had raised to her lips as he sipped the wine she had offered him.

_Third element._

As the rest of the staff chatted and drank together over the next few hours, it began.

Harry knew he should be getting out of bed for his first day of classes, but he just hadn't quite brought himself to be able to do it yet. He hadn't slept well – another dream about Cedric dying, and then one about Perth Taber nearly being killed by Voldemort had kept him from being rested. He sighed out loud, staring at the ceiling. This was just plain getting old.

"All right there, Harry?" Ron asked from where he was already getting dressed.

"Yeah."

"You'd better get of bed, then," Ron scolded Harry from where he was shrugging into his robes. "McGonagall will have a right hissy if we aren't there to get our schedules at breakfast."

Harry dressed quickly and joined Ron as they ran down the stairs to the common room where an impatient Hermione was waiting for them.

"Come on," she said insistently, hurrying to the doorway ahead of them. "I am NOT going to start the year with a detention from McGonagall."

"You could've gone without us," Ron answered sharply.

Hermione stopped walking and turned to Ron. "Yes, I could have, but I much prefer to go with you two as it's usually more fun. I just wish you two would be a little more punctual."

Ron had opened his mouth to retort, but shut it when he realized Hermione wasn't really attacking them. Heck, what she said was even halfway nice. Huh.

The three of them joined Neville and Ginny at the table, and helped themselves quickly to breakfast just as McGonagall made it to where they were sitting. She handed schedules out all around. "Let me see…Miss Weasley….Mr. Longbottom….Miss Granger…….Mr. Weasley…..and Mr. Potter." She looked around the group of sixth years. "Well, have a good first day back," she said, and then walked off to scold a couple of second years that had nearly missed getting their schedules, and then ended up walking by them without saying anything, pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers.

Harry shot a surprised expression at both Ron and Hermione. "You see that?"

"Yeah," Ron said, looking after McGonagall in a slightly concerned way. "She never misses a chance to prod some one back into line. Weird."

Ron flung his schedule onto the table with a groan after he'd read it. "Well, what else is new," he huffed, sounding disgruntled. "We've got bloody double Potions after lunch with the Slytherins!"

Hermione frowned a little. "Ron, you've been having double Potions with the Slytherins for five years."

"I know," he shot back, pouting a little, "just doesn't seem natural not to complain about it, though, does it?"

Harry laughed. "Come on. We'd better get down to the greenhouses."

Professor Sprout was usually chipper and helpful during the lessons they had with her, but after she'd given the instructions for how to prune the Hydra hydrangeas they were to work on in class, she gave one last set of instructions. "If you have any questions, please raise your hands and I will come to you so you may ask your questions quietly. While you are working, please keep the noise level to a minimum, if you would."

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville watched Sprout pinching the bridge of her nose where she was leaning against the wall a bit off in a corner of the greenhouse as the class fell into groups of four per hydrangea. "She looks a bit peaked if you ask me," Neville whispered to the others. They all shared a perplexed look and worked quietly on their plant until near the end of lesson, when Ron was too busy stealing glances at Sprout to pay attention to where he was cutting with his shears, and took a chunk out of Hermione's hand by mistake.

"Ronald!" Hermione gasped, yanking back her hand. Blood was gushing out of the wound as she fought bought tears of pain and frustration.

"Let me see, let me see," Sprout said as she bustled over to where the Hydra hydrangea heads were stretching eagerly for the blood dripping down Hermione's arm. "Oh, dear." Sprout quickly wrapped a handkerchief around the wound and tapped it gently with her wand. "There. That'll hold you until you get to the hospital ward. Run along on up and have Madame Pomfrey or Mistress Lorien take a look at that."

She turned to Ron. "Please see to it that Miss Granger makes it up to the infirmary, Mr. Weasley, and by the end of the week I would like a two foot-long essay on safety in the greenhouse from you, please."

Ron nodded silently and followed Hermione out of the greenhouse, trying to decide if he was more horrified at her injury or the essay.

Hermione just stumped along quietly, sniffing back tears occasionally but not saying anything.

Ron felt awful. "Look, Hermione….."

She shot him a tearful look. "You should be more careful, Ron," she scolded.

Ron opened his mouth to say something cutting back, but stopped when he saw Hermione wince. Blood was starting to seep through the makeshift bandage again.

"It's a deep one isn't it?" Ron asked, eyeing the spreading red stain on the handkerchief. "Look, 'Mione, I'm really sorry."

Hermione said nothing.

"Really." Ron went on, "I really am." He frowned at the steady trickle of blood that was now running down her arm again, despite the fact that she had started applying pressure with her other hand. "Bloody hell," he said softly, "I'm an idiot."

"Yes, you are," Hermione said, but she gave him a weak smile and her words didn't have any real bite to them.

Ron frowned again – she was going to be a mess by the time they made it around to the medical ward. They needed another bandage.

Ron drew his wand before he knew what he was doing and conjured a wad of gauze that he turned to Hermione with. "Here," he said, pressing the material over the already saturated bandage, "this'll get you into the hospital ward."

Hermione was staring at him with a shocked expression on her face.

"What?" Ron asked, not getting an answer from her. "What?" he asked, more annoyed the second time.

Hermione let a slow smile cross her face despite her wounded hand. "Ron, you really are an idiot. Don't you realize what you just did?"

Ron stared blankly at her.

Hermione managed a little laugh, sounding pleased. "You just conjured that bandage for me in about two seconds flat."

"I did?" Ron asked, finding that he'd surprised himself.

"Uh huh," Hermione said, beaming at him.

"Well, whaddaya know?" Ron said, sounding a bit more pleased with himself as the two of them rounded the corner and entered the hospital ward. They glance at where Lorien was speaking to Professor Flitwick.

"There you are, Filius. It should help pretty quickly."

"I hope so," Flitwick replied with a sigh. His color looked a bit pale and he wasted in time in downing the contents of the small blue vial she had handed him before he walked past Ron and Hermione.

Ron muttered under his breath to Hermione next to him as they approached Lorien. "What is up with these professors today?" He glanced over his shoulder meaningfully at where Flitwick had exited.

Hermione was smiling when he looked back at her. She'd recognized the vial that Lorien had handed to Flitwick. She'd seen her give a dose of the same potion to Remus one eventful evening last year. "I'll tell you later," she whispered.

Lorien had seen the bandage on Hermione's hand from across the ward and was now hurrying over to her. "What happened here?" she asked, obviously concerned.

"Greenhouse accident," was all Hermione said.

"Did one of the tentaculas take a bite out of you?" Lorien asked, as she sat Hermione down and started to unwrap the wound.

"No," Ron answered for her, "I did."

Lorien raised an eyebrow at him.

Ron went a bit red in the cheeks. "I sort of nicked her with the pruning shears," he said sheepishly.

"Nicked me?" Hermione replied, "you nearly amputated my thumb!"

"Now, now, let's just have a look, shall we?" Lorien said, giving Ron a brief look that told him not to perpetuate the argument. She gingerly pulled back the last layer of bandage to evaluate the extent of Hermione's injury. "Ah." She said, after a glance at the surface of the wound. "Nothing we can't deal with." She replaced the bloodied bandage with a fresh wad of gauze and applied pressure for a minute.

"Sit back and relax for a moment, Hermione. I just want to check for tendon injuries." Lorien glanced at Ron, who was looking a little pale. "You alright?"

Ron said nothing but nodded weakly.

Hermione leaned back in the chair she was sitting in and watched while Lorien closed her eyes and concentrated. She was aware of a slight warming of her hand where it was enclosed in Lorien's. Lorien remained focused for another few seconds and then frowned slightly and opened her eyes.

"Well, this could have been worse," Lorien began. "There doesn't appear to be any nerve damage, but one of your extensor tendons has been severed, here." She pointed to the back of her own thumb and then glanced at Ron again when he let out a tiny noise.

He looked even paler at this point, and maybe a little green.

"Here," Lorien said, gesturing at a chair and summoning it to swoop in behind Ron. "Sit."

Ron sank weakly into the chair.

"Can you fix it?" Hermione asked, sounding worried.

"Yes, but it'll take me about half an hour or so to get you back together," Lorien replied. "Is that your wand hand, Hermione?"

"No."

"That's just as well," Lorien said, pointing at the gauze and indicating that Hermione should take over applying pressure. "It might be a bit stiff for the next few days." The healer went to the nearby cabinet and came back with a small vial of Freloux's elixir. "Here, drink this," Lorien said as she popped the stopper. "It'll help a lot with the discomfort until I can get this mended."

Hermione drank the potion, grimacing at the awful taste as she did so, and then handed the empty vial back to Lorien.

"Ready?" Lorien asked her after she'd discarded the empty potion vial.

Hermione nodded, not looking overjoyed at the prospect of having her hand put back together.

"Right." Lorien sat down in a chair facing Hermione. "First we're going to use this," she held up another vial of pale blue fluid. "It'll disinfect the wound and take care of any residual sap from the hydra hydrangeas that might have been on the shears and contaminated the injury."

Ron still sat next to Hermione looking apprehensive. "Is the healing spell going to hurt?"

Lorien smiled reassuringly. "It'll be a little uncomfortable at first, but the worst part is going to be this potion. It only hurts for a few seconds but it stings like anything."

Hermione swallowed hard and then steeled herself. She nodded at Lorien. "I'm ready."

When Lorien trickled a small amount of the blue solution into Hermione's wound, she let out a gasp at the intense burn that torn across and into the injury. Reflexively she grabbed Ron's hand in a death grip with her uninjured hand. After a moment of sitting there with her eyes closed and her teeth clenched, she finally let up on Ron's hand enough so that some of the circulation started to return to his fingers. She didn't let go, though, and he knew she was probably not convinced that the rest of the procedure was going to be easier.

Lorien watched Hermione's expression relax a little. "Better now?"

Hermione nodded and relaxed visibly as the pain receded into a dull ache.

"Ok, let's get this tidied up." She placed her hands gently over Hermione's wound and closed her eyes in concentration.

Hermione and Ron headed to the great hall to get lunch and catch up with Harry a short while later.

"How's it feel?" Ron asked, watching where Hermione was periodically examining her hand and flexing her thumb back and forth.

"Pretty good – a little stiff like she said, but the pain is nearly gone," Hermione replied, still contemplating the faintest red line that indicated where her laceration had been a half hour before. She glanced sideways at Ron. "Thanks for staying with me."

Ron's cheeks flush slightly. "Well, I reckon it was the least I could do considering I'm the one that nearly chopped your hand off."

Hermione laughed. "Oh, Ron. It wasn't that bad," she chided teasingly.

Harry waived at them from where he was sitting half way along the Gryffindor table.

"How'd it go?" he asked.

Hermione showed him her repaired hand.

"Wow. That looks great," Harry said though a mouthful of trifle. "She did it wandless?"

"Yeah," Ron answered as Hermione helped herself to lunch. "Sort of like she…." He dropped his voice a little. "Sort of like she did that night with Snape."

Harry nodded although he said nothing. He vividly remembered standing in the hospital ward with Ron watching the Nemorosi healer sealing Snape's nearly fatal wounds. He shuddered slightly at the thought of standing there with Snape's blood covering his hands from when he'd been called to help.

"Speaking of Snape," Ron said in a voice muffled by a large mouthful of food, "double potions next, mate."

Harry heaved a heavy sigh. "I know. Let's go and get this over with."


	9. Double Potions

**Double Potions**

Snape closed the door to the potions supply room and carried a small armful of supplies to the bench at the front of the potions lab. He laid out the packages of slippery elm bark next to the other ingredients that were already there and ran through his mental checklist. The potion he was going to set the sixth years to making wasn't the one he had originally had planned for this lesson, and he wanted to make sure that everything was prepared for the last minute change. It wouldn't do to appear disorganized in front of the students, especially this particular group of insufferable Gryffindors.

Originally, he'd planned on introducing shrinking potions, but after his conversation with Lorien at lunch, he'd changed his mind. The hospital ward had run out of the potion she'd been dishing out to the staff all morning, and he'd be damned if he was going to do all the work replacing the supply by himself. It was a simple enough potion that most of the sixth years could handle, so he might as well put them to work.

He crossed to the blackboard and gestured absently at it. Writing scrawled across in response and the title Elixirum nullus inebriatum appeared at the top, followed by the list of ingredients, their amounts and the directions for combining them.

One last glance at his preparations told him he was ready.

Well, as ready as one could ever be for a class with Longbottom.

Snape sighed resignedly and then steeled himself as he heard the first voices in the corridor outside. He hardened his expression, folded his arms across his chest as he leaned slightly against the bench at the front of the dungeon and silently watched the students file in and sit at their desks. If nothing else, students were fairly well trained as to the behavior he expected in his classroom by year six, and they came in and sat down to wait quietly for instructions. He gave the slightest brief nod to Malfoy, the last student in, who returned the restrained greeting. Snape gestured at the door without looking and it slammed itself shut behind the class, causing them all to flinch.

"Good afternoon," Snape began in a measured tone. "Today's potion, I will warn you, will require your utmost concentration and effort," he said in a voice that left little doubt that he meant it. "The potion you will be preparing today is on the board. You will note that it is a simple formulation," he said with a gesture of mild distain at the ingredients list, "however….." he looked meaningfully around the room, "the potion you will be preparing will not merely be for practice or for marks, but it will actually be going to the hospital ward to be used for Madame Pomfrey's and Mistress Lorien's patients."

A murmur of hushed comments rippled through the room. It died away quickly as Snape's expression became icy. He waited another moment to ensure complete silence again. "Now, who can tell me what Elixirum nullus inebriatum is used for?" He looked around the room expectantly. One hand was raised in the air immediately in front of him.

Once, just once, would it kill her to keep her hand down?

As there were no other hands in the air, he called on her. "Miss Granger?"

"Elixirum nullus inebriatum is used to counteract the effects of intoxicating substances such as ethyl alcohol. It has a fairly short shelf life and is more commonly known as the "Sober-up Potion." Hermione folded her hands on the desk in front of her, as was her habit when she finished giving an answer.

"Correct," Snape replied coolly, "and could someone please tell me which class of restorative potions it falls into……" his voice dropped dangerously. "Mr. Weasley. Is there something you find amusing about the categorizing of restorative potions?"

"No." Ron went red and silent where he had been snickering with Harry about the realization that all of the staff they had encountered so far that morning were exhibiting signs of hangovers. Evidently Flitwick had received the last dose of Sober-up Potion and they'd be making more of the much-needed medication.

"I see," Snape said. "Perhaps you could enlighten the rest of us with an answer?"

Ron answered haltingly. "Class I?"

"Correct, but you were guessing," Snape replied tersely. "Can someone please tell me why it is a class one?"

Merlin's wand! There were actually two hands up in front of him!

Snape ignored the Granger girl and turned to where Malfoy had his hand in the air. "Mr. Malfoy?"

"This would be a class I restorative because it is not brewed backwards like a typical antidote, but it contains none of the standard major restorative agents." Draco looked quiet pleased with himself.

"Correct, Mr. Malfoy," Snape said, sounding a bit pleased. "Could you please inform the rest of your classmates what would define a class II and III restorative?"

Draco looked smug. He knew the answers since he had so recently been forced to do a great deal of work on restorative potions for the hospital ward as punishment for letting the Mangabeys into the school.

"A class II," he replied with a self-satisfied air, " is one that contains the Five Sisters, and a class III also contains mandrake root."

"Very good, Mr. Malfoy," Snape said with a nod. "Ten points to Slytherin."

"Now, is there anyone," Snape gave a small look of approval at Draco, "besides Mr. Malfoy, that can tell me what the Five Sisters are?"

"The five what?" Ron whispered to Harry.

Harry shrugged. "Hermione'll know," he whispered back. Sure enough, Hermione's hand shot into the air.

"Miss Granger?" Snape hadn't even turned back far enough to know that Hermione's hand was in the air before he called on her."

Hermione's hand went down. "The Five Sisters are common restorative components used in potion making as well as in traditional Druidic magic and medicine. They often are used individually in other potions, but in a class II restorative they are always used together."

"That'll do, Miss Granger," Snape said, interrupting her before she could launch into a longer explanation. "Now," he said, addressing the entire class again, "start on your potions at once. Please read the ingredients carefully. There is no reason that any of you," he glanced meaningfully at Neville Longbottom, "shouldn't be able to complete a satisfactory "Sober-up" potion by the end of class." He shot one last glare around the dungeon. "I shall be very displeased if I hear back from Mistress Lorien that your potions have poisoned any of her patients."

"I'll bet," Ron said under his breath so that only Harry could hear him as they went to gather up their ingredients. "Can you imagine? If we screw this up and anyone gets sick, Lorien'll be beside herself. Snape won't get any for a week at least, and that's not going to do a lot to improve his mood in class, now is it?"

Harry might have normally been amused at Ron's comments, but the thought of Snape being in an even worse temper than normal was not something he wanted to deal with. Both he and Ron scurried to grab what they needed.

Hermione arrived at the table to collect her components just at Malfoy did. She doubted he was going to be able to keep his mouth shut. 

He didn't.

"I'm surprised that you know about the Five Sisters, Granger," Malfoy drawled. "After all, that's very old, pure magic – not the sort of thing I'd expect a witch of your background to be familiar with."

"Yes, well I do actually read, Draco," Hermione shot back at him. "Besides the only reason you know about the Five Sisters is because you had it pounded into you during about a hundred detentions."

"It was not a hundred," Draco snarled back under his breath as they both gathered up ingredients.

"Yeah, well maybe it should have been," Hermione said pointedly, as she took some chunks of slippery elm bark. She suddenly looked thoughtful. "Or maybe….."

"Or maybe what?" Draco asked, annoyed now. He thrust out his hand for her to hand him the box of slippery elm.

"Or maybe you've learned a thing or two from your Nemorosi pen pal," she said slyly.

"Pen pal?" Draco demanded, still whispering but obviously irritated, "what are you talking about, Granger?"

Hermione gave him a sweet smile. "Beska LaRue? The Red Witch's granddaughter?"

Draco said nothing and merely scowled back at Hermione, but his pale features tinged a slight shade of pink as Hermione walked away after a self-satisfied snort. True, he had maintained occasional correspondence with the Nemorosi witch, who was away at school at Beauxbatons, and true, the Red Witch was widely known to be an accomplished Potions Mistress, but Draco had done some major studying during his detentions and could probably keep up with that know-it-all Granger in the potions classroom at this point.

By the end of class it appeared that everyone had managed to complete a successful potion, and Snape had the students all bottle individual doses for transport up to the hospital ward before dismissing the class. He surveyed the supply before him. Success. This was going to please Lorien, and it would leave him free time this evening that he would have otherwise spent tediously preparing the potion.

And, it had been an interesting lesson. Draco had obviously retained a lot of what he'd learned last year and over the summer, and was actually beginning to show some enthusiasm for potion brewing. Damn if that Granger girl didn't show more than just competency as well. He should have probably awarded a few points to Gryffindor for her answers, but, well, he wasn't going to lose any sleep over that, now was he?

But…perhaps…..as much as he hated to admit it, her talent needed to be encouraged. It was a rare thing to encounter someone with the predisposition to become a master of the subtle science, and he'd just have to ignore her annoying habit of seeming like a know it all and talk to her about more intensive study. He wondered whether she'd have the guts to accept, especially given that her study partner would probably end up being Malfoy.

He had a feeling that she wouldn't pass the opportunity for advanced study of any sort up, and pairing her with Draco would be just the sort of competitive catalyst that might drive them both to excel. Would it get ugly at times? Yes, but not nearly as ugly as it would with the Draco of a year ago, or if he were dealing with Potter or Weasley.

No, with Draco's new, improved attitude (improved, not necessarily good) it might be just the thing to make the Potions classroom more interesting for both of them, and Snape as well. He walked to his office where he sat and penned a quick note to the Granger girl and summoned a house elf to deliver it to her dormitory.

He let his head fall back against his chair and closed his eyes for just a moment. He was thinking that he might take the completed Elixirum up to the hospital wing as an excuse to see Lorien for a few moments, when someone knocked on his door.

Bother.

"Enter," he replied to the knock abruptly. The door opened and Ariel Sinistra slipped inside and shut the door, leaning with her back pressed against it.

Bloody hell.

She looked wary, as well she should if she dared show her face in his office. "Severus," she said in a subdued greeting.

"Ariel," he hissed quietly, remaining where he was with his head resting against the back of his chair.

"I need a moment," she said quickly, trying to get her request in before he could have an opportunity to throw her out or leave.

"Really?" He asked in a quiet voice that held a note of danger in it. "Huh. I suppose that you just expect that I'll give you that moment," he said acidly.

'_**You have to play this carefully.'**_

"I'm requesting a moment. I don't expect anything."

He stared her down for a minute, and then gave a little wave at the chair in front of his desk, indicating she was free to sit.

Ariel hurried to seat herself. "I'll make this very brief, Severus. I know your free time is limited."

"How thoughtful of you."

"I've come to….."

"Apologize to me like you did to Lorien and Lupin?" Snape asked caustically, cutting her off.

"Yes."

"And what makes you think I'm the least bit interested in an apology from you, Ariel?" he sneered.

"I didn't particularly think you would be," she answered quietly.

"You would be correct," Snape answered, reaching out with one hand and toying with the quill on his desk. He couldn't give a rat's ass about her apology, but he wanted to see where this was going.

Ariel sensed that he was leaving room for her to speak. "Look, Severus, you don't have to accept my apology, but I need to offer it anyway. I regret the inconveniences I put you through last year, and……"

"Stop it!" Snape hissed, interrupting her again. "If you think I buy that pathetic sob story of remorse you sold to Lupin and Lorien, then you obviously have been smoking some serious wicca weed."

"It's the truth," Sinistra replied sincerely.

"It's a load of flaming hippogriff dung, is what it is," Snape shot back. He sat forward in his chair and placed both hands firmly on the desk in front of him so quickly that he caused Sinistra to flinch backwards in hers a little. He glared at her from where he leaned on the desk. "I won't be played a fool by you the way I have in the past," he snarled. "You're up to something, Ariel. I know you are."

Sinistra managed an expression that was a perfect mix of hurt and indignation. "That's preposterous," she replied tersely, " you just can't handle when someone is trying to be nice to you."

Snape was on his feet and rounding his desk. "Nice to me?" He asked incredulously as Sinistra jumped out of her chair and backpedaled toward the door as he bore down on her. "You mean the way you were kind enough to nearly ruin the one chance I had with Lorien?"

'_**You mean the one chance he had at stealing Lorien.'**_

'_Not now. I'm working here.'_

'_**Sorry.'**_

Ariel took another step back and lowered her gaze and her voice. "I know how much she means to you, Severus."

"You don't know anything," he snarled in her face.

"Oh, but I do," Sinistra insisted, "which is why I started to feel so awful about what I had done," she continued evenly. "It's why I'm here. I was selfish when I tried to make trouble for Lorien. I never meant to make trouble for you, it was just an unfortunate consequence of my inconsiderate behavior."

Snape lowered his voice to a dangerous whisper, and spoke slowly, taking one step closer on each word he uttered, backing Sinistra up until her back was against the door. "Lets……talk….about…..unfortunate……circumstances," he growled. "They are what you will find yourself in if you dare to bother me again with this absurdity."

"Now, Severus," Sinistra tried for a reasoning tone.

"Out," he said, suddenly whirling and walking away.

"Severus….."

"OUT!" he cried, pointing at the door. She opened it, flung herself through and, yanked it shut behind her.

Snape dropped agitatedly back into his chair. "Slytherin bitch," he hissed to himself. "You'd better not be up to something, or you'd better pray that I don't ever find out what it is."

He didn't like the thought that Ariel Sinistra might be plotting something. His instincts told him she was, and his instincts were rarely wrong. It couldn't mean anything good.

After dinner that evening, Hermione started walking back towards the Gryffindor tower with Ginny, and along the way they discussed how close she had come to having her thumb removed from her hand by Ron's carelessness that morning.

"How's it feeling now?" Ginny asked.

Hermione held up her hand and flexed her thumb a few times. "Little achy, little stiff," she observed. "Overall, not bad."

Ginny dropped her voice to a whisper and tapped Hermione's shoulder to get her attention away from her repaired thumb. "Speaking of 'not bad'…." She gave a small jerk of her head to direct Hermione's attention down the hall a short ways.

Hermione looked where Ginny was looking. Down the hall and walking toward them were two of the Aurors stationed at Hogwarts. One of them was the woman who today had bright neon pink hair, and the other was Keath Moody.

Hermione grabbed Ginny's arm in a death grip. "Oh! It's Keath!" she gasped, half excited and half frantic. "Oh dear, how's my hair?"

Ginny pried her arm from Hermione's grasp. "It's fine," she whispered back out of the corner of her mouth. Try to act natural –he's spotted us."

Both girls continued down the hall toward the two Aurors casually toward the handsome young wizard that Hermione had spent a little time with at the end of last year. They both smiled and nodded at the security detail as they passed, engaged in conversation about something to do with Hogsmeade. Hermione was about to breath a sigh of relief about getting by without embarrassing herself, when at the last minute Keath gave her a quick wink and continued on by with Tonks. 

Hermione missed a step and the top book of the pile she was carrying toppled off, heading for the floor where it would explode with all the notes she had tucked inside the cover about shrinking potions and hydra hydrangeas.

Ginny's hand snaked out and caught it in midair. She placed the book back in Hermione's pile, shaking her head. "You know, for someone who keeps insisting that you're only interested in learning what it's like to be an Auror from him," she began, scolding in voice that said she was teasing, "you get awfully flustered around him."

Hermione tried for indignant, not really succeeding. "I do not get flustered," she shot back. "I just happened to trip over my robes, that's all." Both girls started up the stairs to Gryffindor tower.

Ginny smiled at her obviously flustered friend. "'Mione, I'd get flustered too if he winked at me like that."

"You would?" Hermione asked, all trace of indignation slipping away.

Ginny nodded. "'Course. He's damn cute." She grinned at Hermione who grinned back.

"He is, isn't he?" They stopped in front of the fat lady. "Audaces equites."

The portal behind the portrait swung open, and both girls went through, crossing the common room to where Harry and Ron had just settled into favorite chairs. Ron narrowed his eyes as he spoke to Hermione. "You look like the cat that swallowed the canary," he said, a note of suspicion in his tone.

Hermione opened her mouth to reply but Ginny answered first. "What kind of a stupid comment is that, Ron?" It was a question, but Ginny said it in a way that said she wasn't really looking for an answer and plunked herself into a chair next to Harry.

Ron scowled at his sister. "I'm just saying, she looked like she was up to something. As a matter of fact, you both do."

Ginny looked pointedly at Ron from next to where Harry had buried his grin behind a book. "So what? You've managed to get to sixth year without ever being 'up to something?'"

"Whatever." Ron waived his sister off and went back to where he was composing an essay on greenhouse safety.

Hermione headed for the girls dorm. "Save me that seat?" she asked, "I'm going to dump all these off and get my Runes homework." All three of the others nodded in acknowledgment.

Hermione trotted up the well-worn stairs to the girl's dormitory that she shared with her classmates, and set the armload of books on her bed. She took a moment to place each one on the bookshelf next to her nightstand where it belonged, and as she pulled out the book she needed to do her homework, a slight glimmer caught her eye. There was a folded piece of parchment sitting on her nightstand.

Curious, Hermione picked it up, knowing that it had been delivered by a house elf by the glimmer that accompanied such deliveries to draw attention to them until the recipient noticed them.

Her name, 'Hermione Granger', was written across the front in hurried but elegant script. Who would have sent her a note by house elf?

She flipped the note over to open it and had her answer the second her eyes fell on the serpent embossed in the green sealing wax on the reverse.

Oh, shit.

There was only one person at Hogwarts that used the seal of Slytherin House, and that could only mean one thing.

She was in trouble.

One day into the term, and already she was in trouble with Snape. How had that happened? She'd brewed an exceptional Elixirum nullus inebriatum. She'd been respectful in class, and answered some fairly tricky questions correctly. Sure she'd traded a few smart comments with Draco, but they'd said much worse to each other and not been in trouble before.

Hermione sighed, dropped her Ancient Runes book on her bed and broke the seal. The note was brief.

_Miss Granger,_

_Please see me tomorrow evening, Thursday, in my office promptly at eight o'clock pm._

Professor Snape

Hermione frowned. There could only be one explanation for this. Harry and Ron must have done something, and Snape was assuming she was guilty as well. Well, she'd better go and find out what they'd done to incriminate her. She stormed down the stairs and strode angrily back to where Harry, Ron and Ginny were waiting for her to join them by the fireplace.

She threw herself into a chair and glared at each of the boys.

"What?" Harry asked when he saw the look on her face.

"What have you two done to piss Snape off now?" she asked in an accusing whisper.

Ron shrugged and answered first. "Hermione, we're good, but we're not that good. It's only the first day of term."

"Yeah," Harry said, starting to grin, "you've got to give us at least a week to really work up to pissing him off."

Hermione looked from Harry to Ron and back, her irritation fading gradually into concern. "You mean…..you haven't done anything?"

Both Harry and Ron shrugged.

Concern slowly started to erode into mild panic. "You mean," Hermione said in a small voice, staring at the note in her hand, "you haven't gotten one of these?" She handed the note over to Ron.

Ron looked at the note with the green seal as if it might bite his fingers for a moment and then took it and read the brief message. His eyes widened a little and he looked back at Hermione and shook his head as he handed the note over to where Harry had reached for it.

Ginny leaned over in her chair to read the note along with Harry, who was also shaking his head. She met Harry's worried gaze for a minute. "Maybe they're in your room?"

Harry nodded and handed her the note, jumped out of his chair and sprinted for the dorm. He reappeared a minute later out of breath, but still shaking his head. "No," he panted. "Nothing for either of us."

Hermione looked down at the note that Ginny had handed back to her and then back up at the worried expressions of her friends.

It looked like tomorrow night she was going to have to see Snape alone.

A/N: Next chapter we get ready to delve deeper into Snape's time as a Death Eater. I've been wanting to explore what might have caused him to switch sides for quite some time and I like where it's going.

As always, thank you to all of you who take the time to read all this stuff, thank you to those that have added me or my stories to a favorites list, and thank you especially to those of you who have sent reviews!

For those of you who are interested, the first chapter of the POTC Barbossa fic that I've been threatening to write for a while now just got posted as well. It's called _Naught But a Humble Pirate._ Yeah, I know - big shocker that Nytd has a thing for another 'badboy', right? 

Cheers!


	10. A Look Back

**A Look Back**

Lorien was leaning over a tiny tow-headed first year in a hospital bed half way down the hospital ward when Snape entered, carrying a box containing the potions he'd promised to have for her this evening. He set the box on the table, glancing at where she was still busy tending her patient, and set about taking the flasks and vials out of the box and tucking them away on the appropriate shelves in the storage cabinets.

In part he was being helpful since she was still busy so late this evening, but partly it gave him an excuse to watch her surreptitiously. He'd never said anything to her about it in conversation, but he had to admit he liked to watch her work. He had a great deal of appreciation for her skill as a healer, and her seemingly endless patience for sniffling, sneezing, wheezing, bleeding, oozing children that arrived daily with ailments both mundane and magical.

Case in point, she was gently coaxing the sobbing little girl to swallow the rest of the contents of the small clear vial she'd prescribed. Sleeping draught it looked like. He knew it tasted awful, and how Lorien got eleven-year-olds to drink them without threatening worse curses than they already had, he'd never understand.

He placed another pair of "sober-ups" on the shelf and picked up two more, pausing to watch where Lorien was wiping the last tears from the sleepy child, and then leaned down to tuck her in under the covers.

He certainly didn't mind watching her work from this angle when she bent over her charges like that. Snape admired the way her robes draped about her derrière for moment, and then turned back to putting away potions as Lorien dimmed the lights and walked away from the now sleeping girl.

"Severus," she said in greeting softly, so as not to disturb her patient. She sounded tired, but she gave him a wan smile and nodded at the stocked shelf. "Thank you."

He nodded. "You look like you've had a long day," he said, glancing briefly at where the first year girl was now sleeping soundly. "What happened to her?"

Lorien beckoned him to follow her into her office where she sank into a chair and let her head fall back. Snape leaned back against the desk next to her and folded his arms as she spoke. "She got caught in the crossfire of a hallway hexfest," Lorien sighed. "It's taken me and Poppy most of the evening to sort out the half dozen curses she'd been hit with."

Snape had a bad feeling about the answer to his next question. "Who did it?"

Lorien's expression told him this was about to become his problem.

"Crabbe and Goyle ambushed several Ravenclaws signing up for Quidditch tryouts. Unfortunately, Miss Hazen and two friends were walking by when the fireworks started and couldn't get out of the way in time. She got the worst of it."

Snape felt his blood pressure rising. Those two had shown signs of becoming a larger menace than before, now that they were no longer spending time in the company of Malfoy. "Damn it," he snarled.

"Filius was looking for you earlier," Lorien continued, " and Minerva as well."

"Minerva?"

"Yes," Lorien said, now smiling a little, " she wanted me to pass along the message that she has already handled punishment for Ginny Weasely."

"What's the Weasely girl got to do with anything?" Snape asked.

"She happened to be standing nearby seeing which Gryffindors were signing up for Quidditch trials and managed to put a stop to the whole thing," Lorien answered. "I let Crabbe and Goyle sit and deal with her Bat Bogey hexes until well after we got the other students sorted out."

Snape quirked an eyebrow up at her.

Lorien spread her hands in a gesture of innocence. "What else could I do?" She asked, " I had to prioritize which injuries were worst. Unfortunately, they had to wait."

"I would have left them at least until tomorrow," Snape said in a manner that convinced Lorien that he probably would have. "Bat bogeys," he growled, agitated now, "I'll give them worse than Bat bogeys." He was off the desk and pacing the length of Lorien's small office.

Lorien recognized the warning signs, knowing that Snape was now working himself into a furious frenzy. It was inevitable that it would lead to an explosive and unproductive confrontation in the Slytherin dorms if she didn't do something to halt his momentum. She stood and quietly walked out of the office, knowing well that this would be more effective than trying a direct approach.

Sure enough, after a moment or two, he followed her out into the hall.

"Where are you going?" he demanded, harsher than she knew he meant to.

"Miss Hazen is stable and sleeping soundly," she replied, matter-of-factly. "She'll be ok for a couple of minutes while I slip off to the kitchens."

"Kitchens? It's after eleven, Lorien," Snape answered, sounding marginally less irritated.

Lorien nodded patiently. "I know, but I'm starving. I've been out straight all day, and haven't eaten anything since breakfast," she said.

'Breakfast' was evidently the magic word. Snape's anger began to erode, and he looked at Lorien with a trace of concern as he realized how hard she'd been working all day. "You must be exhausted," he said, stepping in front of her and blocking her path to the kitchens. "Let me get you something."

"Thanks, Severus," she replied gratefully, " I can manage, but you could walk down with me and keep me company."

Snape nodded and fell into step next to her, suddenly feeling tired, himself. The last traces of his mounting rage were fading as he realized how adeptly she'd just prevented him from having a meltdown.

'Sly bitch,' he thought affectionately, glancing at how she was calmly walking next to him. She halted in front of the hidden entrance to the kitchens, and when she extended her hand toward the pear in the painting, he reached for her arm and pulled her around to face him.

"What?" she asked.

He pulled her another step toward him. "You know exactly what," he replied. "Very smooth the way you manipulated me out of my righteous rage just now."

" 'Manipulated' is such a strong word, Severus," she said quietly, meeting his stare evenly.

"And what do you call it?" he asked.

"I call it taking care of you," she said quietly in return. She placed a hand gently on his chest over his heart, and dropped her gaze to where she had placed her fingers. "It can't be good for you to get that upset with all the other worries that we have right now…." Her voice trailed off.

"I see," he said. "So, you know what's best for me, do you?" There was only a hint of sarcasm lacing his question.

She looked up into his eyes, leaving her fingers over his heart. "Who would know better?" she asked softly.

He gave her a rare smile and pulled her gently against him. "No one," he whispered, and he drew her into a long deep kiss.

"Ahem."

Snape recognized the headmaster clearing his throat, even from down the hall, and he quickly released Lorien, who was going quite red.

"Ah, there you are Severus," Dumbledore said as if he'd only just noticed the tall, darkly robed wizard standing in the middle of the hall. "Good evening, Lorien," he said pleasantly as he approached, appearing not to notice the bright shade of pink her face had turned.

"Headmaster," she said quietly in return, smoothing out her robes distractedly.

"Would you mind if I borrowed Severus for a few moments?" he asked her kindly. "I promise not to take up much of his time."

"Of course," Lorien replied, blushing a brighter shade of pink and escaping beyond the portrait into the kitchen.

Snape waited for the headmaster to speak as Dumbledore stared thoughtfully after where Lorien had swung the portrait closed behind her. He looked back at Snape. "Lovely girl, that. Smart witch, smart witch indeed, wouldn't you agree, Severus?"

"Of course."

"Really goes out on a limb if it's needed to care for others, that Lorien," Dumbledore continued, walking casually along the hallway as Snape followed.

Snape was pretty sure that by 'others', Dumbledore meant him. He walked along in silence with the older wizard, waiting patiently for Dumbledore to speak again. He wasn't expecting what the headmaster would say next.

Dumbledore interrupted his stroll for a brief moment, but never took his gaze off the end of the hallway. His voice was hushed when he spoke again. "Don't let her go, Severus." He turned and looked meaningfully over his half-moon spectacles at the younger mage. "Keep her close. Keep her safe."

The headmaster's brief advice conveyed volumes to Snape, who conveyed as much back with a silent but solemn nod.

"Good." Dumbledore resumed his casual pace along the deserted hall and changed the subject as Snape clasped his hands behind his back and kept pace with him. "I assume that you've heard by now about Messrs. Crabbe and Goyle?"

"I have only just heard," Snape replied with a sigh.

"Yes, well, they pose a bit more of a problem this year, don't they?" Dumbledore mused.

Snape knew that Dumbledore, like he, had come to the same conclusion that Crabbe and Goyle were an obvious danger to the school without the influence of Malfoy to temper their recklessness.

"I wanted to speak with you first before making any decisions," Dumbledore continued. "How would you handle this, Severus?" The headmaster came to a stop again and turned in Snape's direction.

Snape stared at the floor between them thoughtfully for a long moment, and taking deep breath, looked back up to meet the headmaster's clear blue gaze. "I would expel them at once," Snape answered firmly.

Dumbledore didn't really look surprised but he questioned Snape's answer anyway. "Truly? You believe there is no hope of redemption for either?"

Snape shook his head. "No, they do not doubt in the least that the Dark Lord's way is the only one. They have traveled too far down that road to turn back."

"You're sure of this?" Dumbledore asked. "You even gave Draco the benefit of the doubt."

Snape continued to shake his head. "No, Draco always doubted. He swaggered, and boasted and talked a lot, but he learned a very hard lesson last year when he got hung out to dry as a scapegoat even though he risked a lot to prove himself to his father and to Voldemort." Snape heaved a weary sigh before he continued. "Draco learned that hard work and loyalty don't necessarily warrant reward. In the Dark Lord's world, you earn yourself a one way ticket to hell for hard work and loyalty."

Snape had paused for a moment and was unconsciously clenching his left hand before he spoke again softly. " It isn't a world Draco wants to live in anymore. He's too smart, too talented. He's realized that he's wasted precious time already. As for Crabbe and Goyle?" Snape snarled, "they're unthinking, unfeeling thugs."

Dumbledore nodded gravely. "No one would understand the situation better than you, my friend. I highly value your opinion, as usual."

"When will you make your decision?" Snape asked quietly.

"Oh, I just finished deciding while we were talking," Dumbledore replied somewhat wearily. "Your feelings are the same as mine. I'm going to have them expelled immediately."

Both men glanced back down the hall a little ways to where Lorien was exiting the kitchens, and then Snape addressed the headmaster again. "Do you need me to deal with this?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "No. While I think your influence was invaluable where Draco was concerned, it has no bearing on this situation."

Snape looked a tiny bit relieved as Dumbledore continued. "The Aurors and I will handle this tonight."

"You're sure?"

"Yes," Dumbledore replied, "besides," he said with a smile and a glance at where Lorien remained patiently back by the portrait, "I told her I wouldn't take up much of your time."

Snape merely nodded and strode off to join Lorien at the end of the hallway.

Dumbledore watched them walking away together, and saw the gesture of concern from Lorien when she placed her hand gently on Snape's arm just before they rounded the corner.

He knew that Lorien was aware of what lay beneath her hand on Snape's arm. Severus had confided to him himself that he had told her about his past, including the things that no one else but Dumbledore himself had known. She had chosen to stand by him and place her utmost trust in him as had Dumbledore, but in addition to her trust, she had given Snape her heart.

Dumbledore frowned a little; knowing that she was good for Severus, but concerned that the path that lay before them was still going to be rocky. He hoped they would survive what lie ahead intact, and that the bond that was obviously growing daily between them would be strong enough to see them through.

Not that he wasn't worried about Lorien, he was. It was just ……Snape had been through so many traumas, emotional and otherwise, throughout his life. Dumbledore had often worried about the younger wizard over the years, wondering if his will to live was as strong as one was led to believe. Until he met Lorien, that is. Since the night she had saved his life he seemed not only to be surviving, but to be _living_ again.

Dumbledore wondered if Lorien knew how much she had done to heal the dark wizard in soul as well as in body. Dumbledore had seen that ragged soul, laid bare and torn before him on that night so many years ago……

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, head leaning wearily on his hand as he read the latest letter from the board of governors, stating their concerns about the safety of the students at Hogwarts. Once again, they were debating about closing the school.

It was raining heavily outside, although the preoccupied headmaster had hardly noticed the approaching storm until a particularly sharp crack of thunder split the sky over the castle.

Fawkes jerked his head out from under his wing and ruffled his feathers in agitation at having been woken from his nap on his perch next to Dumbledore's desk. Finally taking notice of the storm, Dumbledore let the letter fall to his desk, pressed his palms to his eyes for a moment and then lowered his hands to stare out the window.

He was fighting a losing battle with the governors. He wished he could make them see how much better off they would be if Hogwarts were allowed to open this term. Of course, he couldn't blame them for getting panicky. Two Aurors had changed sides, two more had ended up in St. Mungos…probably permanently, and three more members of the Order of the Phoenix were missing.

A knock at his door roused him from his thoughts, and he turned his gaze back from where he'd been staring out into the rain. "Come in."

Sirius Black entered the office.

"Ah, Sirius. How are you?" Dumbledore started to get up, but Sirius held up a hand indicating he shouldn't bother and flung himself into the chair in front of the large desk, running a hand back through his wet hair.

"Fine." Sirius replied.

"And how are Lily and James?" Dumbledore asked, "They're well?"

Sirius nodded and smiled. "Little Harry is keeping them busy enough."

"Good." Dumbledore was quiet for a minute and then looked back at Sirius. "You know about Frank and Alice?"

Sirius nodded, looking tired and careworn, but there was a fierceness in his eyes. "My cousin had better hope that I'm not the one to catch up with her……."

Dumbledore nodded in understanding and then changed the subject. "Sirius, I asked you here because I need someone to take a message to Mad-Eye for me. I don't dare entrust this one to an owl at this point. It's too important."

Sirius was instantly on his feet, taking the sealed letter Dumbledore was handing to him. "I'll take it immediately."

"Good, and one more favor, Sirius?" Dumbledore asked as the younger wizard was heading back for the door. "Check on Remus for me. The full moon isn't far off and he's probably in rough shape."

Sirius sighed and remained standing with his back to the headmaster. "You're convinced still that it's not him?"

Dumbledore's answer was firm. "I am."

"Somebody's leaking information still, Albus. I wish I could be as certain as you that he's not……."

"Time will tell, Sirius. You'll check on him for me?"

"Yeah," Sirius answered from where he had his hand on the doorknob. "I'll try. He's been giving me the cold shoulder lately too." He walked out before the headmaster could say anything else, and another crack of thunder ripped its way across the heavens.

Dumbledore sighed. The mistrust that had been growing among the members of the Order was like a cancer, threatening the survival of the whole organization.

Fawkes let out a tiny inquisitive squawk, and Dumbledore turned to follow the bird's gaze out the window into the driving rain. At first he saw nothing, but after a moment, he thought he could make out a small shadow in the looming darkness. Was that an owl?

He rose and went to the window to look closer, and after a minute or two, it became clear that a small dark owl was battling its way through the storm towards his window. Dumbledore threw the window open as the bird drew near, and it shot gratefully through the open window and collapsed more than landed on his desk.

Dumbledore saw how rapidly the bird was breathing, and he removed Fawkes' water dish from his perch and placed it in front of the exhausted bird in front of him. He sat down to wait patiently. The bird quit breathing so erratically after a few minutes, and then took a long drink at the dish. Finally it held it's left leg out to the headmaster.

Dumbledore was expecting to unroll a message, but felt a surge of adrenaline when he saw what was on the sheet before him. The small piece of cloth was white, with the tripartite wizard's symbol of peace. It was smeared in the center with a red-brown stain that looked like recently dried blood.

A truce proposal, sealed with an offering of blood so that the truce was binding upon penalty of death. Who would send such a thing?

Dumbledore quickly looked down at where the small owl was now holding out its right leg.


	11. The Wizard's Vow

**The Wizard's Vow**

Dumbledore stared at the little bird, waiting patiently while it held its leg out and stood there with rainwater dripping off its feathers onto his desk. He removed the note, conjured a comfortable perch with a tray full of dead mice, and gently placed the tired owl on the stand. "There. Rest up, little one."

He sat back down and opened the note. It was brief but it caused him to frown heavily and think quickly as he read it.

_Professor Dumbledore,_

_I urgently request a meeting with you. If this note has made it to your hands, then you will understand that I have offered the most binding truce that I am able. If this owl has fallen into the wrong hands, then my life is forfeit, which it may well be regardless._

_If a meeting is acceptable to you, then I will accept a time and a place of your designation._

_I anxiously await your response._

_Respectfully,_

_Severus Snape_

Dumbledore reread the letter twice and then tossed it into the flames of the fireplace. This could be a trap, of course, if that wasn't actually Snape's blood on the truce offering. He spread the cloth on the desk in front of him, speaking a brief incantation, and the bloodstain took on a faint green glow, but otherwise remained intact.

It was Snape's blood.

Dumbledore reached for a quill, parchment and a small white cloth from his desk, and began writing a reply. The most obvious conclusion was that Snape was requesting a meeting without Voldemort's knowledge, but why?

He finished his reply and turned to Fawkes. "Sorry, old friend. It'll be faster if you go than an owl." He bound the sealed note to the bird's leg, and returned to where he had stamped the wizard's truce symbol on the small cloth. He took a small silver knife from his desk draw and opened a small wound on the thumb of his right hand, as was custom. After pressing his blood into the cloth to seal the pact of truce for twenty-four hours, he handed the peace offering to Fawkes, who grabbed it with his claws and disappeared in a flash of fire.

So, Severus wanted a meeting.

Dumbledore reflected sadly on the remarkable but troubled youth that Snape had been at Hogwarts. Bookish, awkward, and insecure, he nonetheless outshone most of his classmates in nearly every subject. He excelled at Potions, causing Professor Slughorn to more than once confide that he was astounded by the boy's aptitude for the subtle science. Snape seemed to know as much about the dark arts as the instructors that taught the subject of Defense. He devoured Herbology lore, which went naturally hand in hand with his skill at potion brewing, and even did well in History of Magic.

His skill in Charms class was only shadowed by Lily Evans, and in Transfiguration, the only two people who may have gotten better marks were James Potter and Sirius Black.

So, with that much talent and skill, and the obvious admiration of his instructors, where did things go wrong?

Dumbledore glanced at the hat that sat on the shelf in his office. No, it wasn't the hat's fault for putting him in Slytherin, but it was the hat that sensed that things had gone wrong long before Snape had arrived at Hogwarts. A broken home, a distant abusive father……

So many things seemed to conspire to send the boy down the wrong path, step, by step, by step. Dumbledore had never watched a student as carefully as he watched Severus Snape, except for maybe Tom Riddle himself. While it was apparent from even before Tom set foot in Hogwarts that he was one to be wary of and monitor closely, Dumbledore had always felt that there was a small chance that Snape might escape the fate that had ultimately awaited Riddle.

He'd done everything he could to nudge the boy along the right path, even taken the time to give the boy Occlumency lessons himself in Snape's sixth year. It had all been for naught. Between getting caught up in a gang of friends that would ultimately end up as Death Eaters, and because of his constant torment by other students, not limited to, but including Potter and Black, Snape went deeper, and deeper into the Dark Arts.

Of course it wasn't long before Snape's exceptional talents caught the attention of Voldemort, and once the Dark Lord took a hand in personally courting the young mage, his seduction by black magic became complete.

Dumbledore shook his head sadly. An hour from now he wouldn't just be meeting with a former student gone astray, he'd be face to face with one of the most dangerous dark wizards on the planet.

Nearly an hour later, the rain had stopped, but thunder still rumbled in the distance, and lightning still occasionally lit up the night as Dumbledore stood patiently with his hands folded, waiting by the side of the small forest pool. He'd chosen this spot, knowing it was familiar to the boy that the wizard about to arrive had been.

He didn't have to wait long. It was only a few moments before he realized that something in the shadows nearby was moving, and he had the most fleeting impression of a large predator eyeing him from the depths of those shadows.

"Good evening, Severus," Dumbledore said calmly.

"Good evening, Headmaster," came the soft reply from the darkness.

Lightning flashed again, for an instant lighting up a tall figure in dark robes, standing several feet closer than Dumbledore had actually thought he was. The lightning was gone, but then Snape banished the shadow of darkness he had created around himself and stood there before him.

Dumbledore took in his appearance. It had been a few years since he'd last seen Snape, and the wizard before him was an inch or two taller than he'd been when last they'd met. He wore robes and a long cloak of black, and his raven hair was slightly longer than he'd worn it at school. His fine features and hawklike nose had matured, perhaps not into the great good looks possessed by someone like Sirius, but into something more refined than those of the awkward teenager that Dumbledore had taught.

Again, Dumbledore felt a pang of loss and sadness at what Snape could have become had he chosen a different path. He gathered his thoughts quickly and addressed the dark wizard. "You wish to speak with me?"

"I do," Snape replied. "You accept the truce?" He held up his right hand and stepped into a small patch of weak moonlight that filtered through breaks in the dissipating storm.

"Yes," Dumbledore said, holding up his own right thumb. He found himself slightly startled, not by the dried blood covering the wound on Snape's hand, but by how _haunted_ the young man looked, now that he could see him more clearly. He'd always been fair skinned, but his pale face looked drawn and haggard, and there were dark circles under the already dark eyes.

"Good," Snape replied, sounding tired. "I wanted………" he took a hesitant step forward. "I wished to……"

Dumbledore realized what was happening even as Snape's voice trailed off weakly, and leapt forward to grab his arms as he realized the man before him had started to collapse. He was able to keep Snape from falling and at least able to ease him onto his knees on the ground. He knelt in front of the younger man, and let go only once he was sure that he was not going to keel over.

He saw Snape's eyes suddenly become alarmed when he drew his wand, but then relax again a little as he merely conjured a glass of water and handed it over. Snape drank it, and banished the empty glass. "Thank you," he gasped weakly.

Dumbledore frowned as he studied the fragile state of the man kneeling in front of him. This was no hoax -it looked like the man might be dying. Another fading thunderclap rolled away across the sky.

"Severus, you need medical attention," Dumbledore said quietly, "let me get you help." He was startled when Snape found the strength to laugh.

"Help?" he sneered, "and who exactly would you take me to for help? St. Mungo's? I'd be handed over to the dementors long before I ever made it out of triage."

Dumbledore knew he was right. "What can I do to help, Severus?"

Snape shook his head, wobbling a little when he did so. "Nothing. There's nothing you can do at the moment." He fell into a violent fit of coughing that nearly knocked him down.

"Have you been cursed?" Dumbledore asked, reaching out and placing a hand on Snape's elbow to steady him.

"Poisoned," Snape gasped in reply, "my own creation, actually."

"Poisoned?" Dumbledore asked.

Snape held up a hand weakly in a silencing gesture. "I've taken the antidote already," he croaked, and then managed a wry smile. "I actually look better than I did half an hour ago."

Dumbledore asked the question even though he knew he wouldn't like the answer. "Who poisoned you?"

Snape snorted. "My boss," he said with acidic sarcasm.

Dumbledore felt himself angry, even though he knew the wizard in front of him was one of the last ones that should deserve his sympathy. "You mean Voldem…."

"Yes!" Snape hissed angrily, cutting Dumbledore off before he could speak the name. "Evidently he is displeased with my lack of compliance lately, and decided to punish me by making me drink one of the poisons I had created."

"He did this to you half an hour ago?"

Snape could only nod through the coughing spell that wracked his body again at that moment. It didn't last as long as the last fit, which was probably a good thing since Snape was now wiping a trace of blood from the side of his mouth.

Dumbledore continued. "So, you requested this meeting before he punished you?"

Snape let out a relieved sigh that the paroxysm of coughing had stopped again. "Yes," he answered hoarsely.

"I see." Dumbledore appeared thoughtful for a moment and then became serious again. "What is it you wanted to meet with me about?"

Snape met his eyes for only an instant and then looked away. "I…...I came to warn you," he said, still panting a little from his coughing.

"About what?" Dumbledore asked, concern edging its way into his voice.

"The Potters," Snape replied, still a little out of breath. "The Dark Lord…..he means to find them…..he means to destroy them."

"When?" Dumbledore demanded, now becoming visibly upset.

"Soon. You'll have to warn them immediately."

Dumbledore nodded. "At once," he said, and then his face became very stern. "Why are you telling me this? It obviously means that you've place your life in great jeopardy if you're telling me this and it's the truth."

Snape looked back at the headmaster. "It's the truth," he said simply.

"Why should I believe a Death Eater?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

Snape spoke up again. "Three reasons. One, I owe Potter a life debt. He saved me from the werewolf that night as you know, and I am bound to repay him. Two, Lily was one of the only people that ever called me a friend at Hogwarts, and three, it's my fault that they're in danger." He looked away again.

Dumbledore looked puzzled for an instant and then alarmed. "The prophecy?"

Snape nodded but didn't look back up at the headmaster. He knew Dumbledore was aware that he'd overheard the prophecy concerning Voldemort and the child last year. "The Dark Lord means to kill their son," he said in barely more than a whisper.

Dumbledore got to his feet. His hands and his voice were trembling with the intense anger he felt building. "I thank you for telling me this Severus," he said with difficulty, "but now I must leave, and you should return to your master before he finds out you met with me." Dumbledore turned to go, and hesitated when he realized that Snape had spoke from where he remained on his knees.

"He is no longer my master," Snape said quietly.

Dumbledore didn't turn. "Is this true?"

"He does not know yet, but I made up my mind three weeks ago," Snape explained. "He senses something wrong – it's why he continues to punish me."

Dumbledore turned around. "Why do you stay if he continues to torture you, Severus?"

Snape opened his mouth to reply, hesitated and then slumped defeatedly. "I don't……I don't know."

The older wizard spoke without anger at this point to the younger one kneeling in front of him. "You're punishing yourself, aren't you?"

Snape gave a half-hearted shrug. His eyes had taken on that haunted look again, and his voice trembled with emotion. "I……I have done so many things, Dumbledore……so many terrible, horrible things…."

Dumbledore could see that Snape's hands were shaking when he buried his head in them. "I deserve what I've gotten…….I deserve worse…….I don't deserve to live…..I don't want to live."

The old man watched, knowing that Snape was on the verge of breaking. "Surely you can't mean that, Severus."

Snape's head snapped up and he became more agitated. "Don't I?" He gave a bitter laugh. "I almost did die! When he made me drink that potion, as awful as it was I knew it was only a matter of minutes and it would all be over!" He waved an arm about a little wildly. "This madness would all be over!"

Dumbledore watched the raven head fall back down as Snape knelt on the ground shaking with the sobs that escaped from him. He spoke softly. "But you took the antidote, didn't you? It must mean that some part of you does want to live."

Snape looked up from the ground with anger and tears in his eyes and snarled his answer back. "The only reason I drank the antidote at the last minute was so that I could warn you about the Potters. I was determined not to let myself die until I had righted at least one of the many wrongs I have done."

Dumbledore spoke kindly. "That you have done." He could see a tiny nod of acknowledgement where Snape still hung his head in shame. "May I ask you a question, Severus?"

Snape gave another barely perceptible nod.

"You said that you'd made up your mind that Voldemort…"

Snape flinched.

"….was no longer your master. Why?"

Snape remained silent for several long minutes, but Dumbledore waited patiently. If Snape were possibly telling the truth, if there was any way he could be even remotely trusted……. he had to know. When Snape finally spoke again it was in a hoarse whisper.

"There is only one way for you to know that the things I speak of are the truth." He looked up slowly from where he remained kneeling, and pushed away the long hair that had fallen in his face.

It took only a moment for Dumbledore to understand what his former student meant. He was referring to legillimancy, the ability to read another thoughts and memories, a skill that he had taught Snape himself. He knew that the dark wizard excelled at it, but Dumbledore also knew few people that were more skilled than Snape at its counterpart. Snape was a very quick study at Occlumency when Dumbledore had taught him; he could only assume that his skill had grown. It might even be possible that Snape could keep things hidden even if he did agree to submit to……"

Snape spoke and interrupted his train of thought. "I will make the vow," he said. Even though he had not read Dumbledore's mind, he had made a pretty good guess as to what his thinking was.

Dumbledore nodded solemnly. "Very well. I will accept, but….."

Snape tried to protest. "I am willing! I offer feely to……" He stopped when he saw the hand Dumbledore held up as a calming and quieting gesture.

"And I accept your offer, Severus, but I am concerned that in your compromised state, such an invasion could place you in jeopardy."

Snape spoke more to himself than to Dumbledore. "That would be of little consequence," he sighed.

"Perhaps, but then again….perhaps not," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. He took on a more determined air. "Very well, then. Are you prepared?"

As weak as he still was, Snape's voice took on a steely note. "I am."

"Good, but before we do this, well…..for obvious reasons I must ask for your wand, Severus," the older wizard said evenly.

Snape gave little shrug, and with a flick of his wrist, his wand was suddenly in his right hand from where he'd tucked it up his sleeve. He flipped it over and offered it to Dumbledore, who took it and tucked it inside his own robes.

"Thank you." Dumbledore reached for his own wand, as well as the small silver knife that he'd brought with him. Taking a step or two away to a clear spot on the ground he spoke an invocation, and the same symbol that had been on the truce flags appeared etched into the exposed surface of a flat rock at the waters edge. He turned toward where Snape had climbed haltingly to his feet, and then watched him step into place on the opposite side of the rock. Snape nodded once to indicate they should proceed.

Dumbledore spoke the first words as a last distant rumble of thunder rolled away across the sky. He held his right hand out in the air over the mark, and re-opened the small wound on his thumb, causing three drops of blood to fall upon the rock.

"Sum praesentialiter," he said, initiating the vow, and he handed the knife to Snape.

Snape took the knife and held his hand over the rock as well. It was up to him to complete the wizard's oath now. He looked into the blue eyes that watched him intently, and then his gaze went to the knife as his resolve strengthened.

"Sum praesentialiter," he spoke, and Dumbldore's voice joined him for the remainder, "de corde totaliter,…..et ex mente tosa,……fidem meam nota!" At the last, Snape re-opened the wound on his own right hand, and spilled three drops of his own blood. The symbol etched in the rock suddenly flared bright white, and then settled down to a faint golden glow.

Snape took another deep breath as his gaze remained for a last instant on the knife in his hand. There was no turning back now that he had committed himself. When he opened his mind to his former teacher, everything that was there would be laid bare.

Nothing could be hidden so long as the symbol's light still shone on the rock at their feet. Occlumency would do him no good at this point –every terrible crime he had committed, every nightmare that he'd been responsible for would be as clear as if it were on the pages of a book. His fear, his shame, his sins –all of it.

Snape looked up and into Dumbledore's blue eyes.

A/N The wizard's vow "I am in your presence, in my heart completely and with my whole mind. Mark my trust."


	12. Rowan

**A/N:** Thanks for hanging in there gang! This is a double chapter for being so patient while I've been off playing pirate!

**Rowan**

**--**

Dumbledore said not a word, but when his eyes locked on Snape's, the images began to surface, rapidly at first, like someone letting the pages of a book flutter through their fingers.

Here was tall, angry man with dark hair and beard, seeming to be shouting. An image of himself, several years younger nodding encouragement with a smile. Blips of color, sound, and movement and next a hazy, smoke-filled room that looked like a tavern, followed by an intense image of pain, and what was probably Snape's own voice screaming.

Dumbledore had braced himself for the worst already and continued on.

The light dimmed and here was an attractive olive-skinned woman, walking toward him and letting her robes slip off her shoulders to the floor. The dim light became bright daylight and he was hanging upside down, a young James Potter nearby pointing his wand and taunting.

More images rippled by.

The face of Voldemort appeared, laughing in perverse pleasure, then the face of a young man in Auror's robes, screaming in agony.

Another Auror, too weak to scream anymore, possibly dying.

Soon the onslaught slowed, as those images the seeker had deemed most relevant began to emerge.

Here was Snape, a short while ago, struggling on his knees with his arms bound behind his back, while two Death Eaters dragged his head back by his hair and forced him to drink something that resembled congealing blood as they laughed.

Here was a long table, with several people seated around it. He sat across from a man with white-blonde hair and pointed features. Lucius Malfoy. His attention was focused intensely on someone who was speaking and seated to his left and to Snape's right.

Voldemort was finishing something he'd been saying. "….and when the Potters are found, you are to do nothing…..nothing to harm them, especially the child. I will deal with them myself….am I clear?"

A chorus of assent went around the table.

"Good." Voldemort rose and all the others were instantly on their feet and bowing their master out of the room.

The scene changed again. He was being dragged bodily up and out of an opening in the ground near the base of the whomping willow. He turned on James Potter, barely hearing the verbal berating that Potter was giving him, hate in his eyes as he realized that his nemesis had just saved his life from a werewolf.

Dumbledore was finding everything that Snape had said was true, but he dug deeper, instinct telling him there was something else of significance he needed to see.

Colors rushed by again, and here was the same olive-skinned woman, wearing the robes of a Death Eater and standing over the ragged body of a dead wizard. Now, pain seared across his forearm as he was summoned yet again to the Dark Lord's side, now a little girl with raven hair was screaming. He was sitting in Horace Slughorn's class, passing a note to a young Lily Evans…..Dumbledore backtracked and homed in on the dark corner of Snape's mind that the little girl screamed from.

Dumbledore found himself in the same smoke-filled tavern he had glimpsed in an earlier memory. He was standing next to Snape, who had seated himself at a table in a dim corner from where he was able to watch both the entrance, and the door at the back of the room that led elsewhere in the tavern. A drink that had barely been touched sat in front of Snape as he watched the entrance intently, taking note of anyone that passed by the small, dirty windows.

"It's a bloody waste of time, is wha' this is," a deep coarse voice grumbled. Dumbledore's attention was drawn to the person seated across the small table, most likely another Death Eater.

Snape's eyes snapped impatiently to his brawny companion, and then back to the doorway. "He'll be here," he said he said curtly.

"Yeah, well we been waitin' all effin' day for t' bastard now, an' 'e ain't shown 'is effin' face yet," the large man complained. He took a great draught from the tankard in front of him and smacked it back on the table.

Snape's voice dropped to a dangerous whisper as he leaned across the table. "Yes, and you'll wait all effin' night if necessary," he said, wondering if the brute across from him wound notice the verbal jab. "Unless, of course, you feel your time is more important than……."

The other Death Eater was on his feet quickly for such a big man, and followed where Snape had jumped out of his chair and made his way quickly toward the door, drawing his wand as he went.

Dumbledore followed, noting the man that had paused in the narrow street outside.

It took the two Death Eaters a few seconds to dodge their way between and around the numerous occupied tables between them and the door, and when they finally reached the door, there was no sign of the man they'd been watching for.

"Damn!" Snape swore under his breath. He snapped at his partner. "You go that way, I'll go this way, and you'd better pray we don't lose him!" The two of them split up, and Dumbledore followed after Snape, as he hurried down what was now recognizable as a section of Knockturn alley.

The scene blurred a for a moment, and then Dumbledore was standing next to where Snape had just apparated, a little out of breath at what had turned into a fruitless search. They stood together at the edge of a small park bordering a nicer neighborhood that was obviously some distance from Knockturn alley.

Snape was agitated. He was growing weary of this.

Bugger Malloy. The man was little more than a common thug, and if he hadn't been so busy complaining, he might have spotted their target a couple of seconds sooner. It would have been all he needed to get a clear shot at the man.

Well, if Malloy hadn't found the man by now, then he could bloody well explain himself why they hadn't succeeded. It certainly wasn't Snape's fault. But of course, when it came to the Dark Lord, that didn't really matter a great deal, did it?

Snape flung himself on a nearby park bench to catch his breath. What he wouldn't give to not have to report back to The Dark Lord; not to worry about which wrong answer might have him writhing in agony on the ground, or which small failure might get his ass AK'd into oblivion. He was contemplating the sun well on it's way toward setting, and which poison he might just happen to slip into Malloy's next pint, when he heard the cry echo across the park.

Looking up he could see what appeared to be a group of children gathered together not far off. He rolled his eyes and let his head fall back against the bench wearily, and then another cry, one of pain, reached his ears again. Curious, he lifted his head and looked to see what the children were doing with mild interest.

It became obvious as he watched, that the group of five or six kids, who appeared to be about eight or nine years old, were gathered in a circle, looking at something on the ground. When one of them moved swiftly to kick out at what was in front of him, he shifted enough for Snape to see that the next cry that the kick elicited was from another child, sobbing on the ground.

Not that he had time to waste on some playground brawl, but when the next tormenter snarled the word 'witch' as she reached into the circle and slapped the girl who was trying to get up, Snape took enough interest to get up and walk slowly toward the commotion.

He could see the girl who was the target now, dressed as a well-to-do child would be, but with clothes now dirty and torn. She was trying desperately to get off the ground. She kept shouting back at the group. "Leave me alone! It's not my fault!" The gang around her taunted her and struck out at her.

"It's all your fault, you no good lying witch."

"Your whole family's a bunch of wackos."

Snape had made it half the distance to the flock of angry children, and saw enough to surmise what had happened. Every child standing in the circle bore evidence of having had a severe nosebleed. It made sense. At this age the young witch on the ground would have little control of her recently emerging talents. They must have done something to her to elicit an emotional outburst and suffered the consequences. Snape smiled to himself to think that in a few years nosebleeds might be the best this gang of muggle punks might hope to suffer from.

"Creep! Wierdo!"

"Witch bitch!"

One of the girls in the circle, a large girl with tight curls, yanked a handful of the young witch's long raven hair, and she cried out again in fear, and pain and frustration.

Curly-top screamed and yanked her hand back as if she'd been burned. Indeed, her hand did appear to be deep red.

'Good girl', Snape thought.

"You filthy……!" One of the larger boys yelled, and swung a long stick back over his shoulder, obviously intending to hit the girl on the ground.

Snape's anger rose instantly. "Accio!" He cried as he closed the short distance between himself and the children quickly. The stick flew out of the boy's upraised hand, and Snape caught it deftly and flung it to the ground. It burst into flames.

He caught up the boy by the front of his shirt and yanked him off his feet. "So, you want to play with sticks, do you?" he snarled. "Well, let me show you mine." He raised his wand and brandished it in the boy's face.

The other children stood riveted to the spot in terror for a moment when the wizard in billowing black robes descended upon their companion. The little dark haired witch on the ground had scrambled to her feet and away.

Snape narrowed his eyes and stared at the boy who was now being held by his shirt at eye level, tapping his chin thoughtfully with his wand. "Hmmm, let me see….perhaps I should turn you into a toad……."

Screams broke out all around as the gang of children scattered frantically in all directions.

A half-sob half- giggle came from the young witch who was wiping away her tears. "He looks like he'd make a better rat to me."

Snape glanced over his shoulder at her. "A rat?"

She nodded.

"You're sure?" He asked casually.

"Yes," she said firmly, suppressing a giggle.

"Not a toad?" He asked, looking at the terror-stricken youth, and back at her again.

"Rat, please," she said.

"Oh, all right," Snape agreed finally. He raised his wand and watched as the boy fainted dead away. Snape let him slide through his fingers into a heap on the ground. "Filth," he spat quietly, wiping his hand on his robes.

He turned to face the young witch, who was still wiping tears from her cheeks and dirt from her torn dress. She looked none the worse for wear, as far as he could see. "You should be more careful," he admonished her, and he started to turn away.

"They should be more careful," he heard her say, disdain slipping into her voice. Snape turned his head back in time to see her give a good swift kick to the boy on the ground.

He suddenly found that he was amused by the girl's pluck. They'd better watch out for this one in a few years, indeed! He turned to address her again. "You are unharmed?"

She shrugged.

"You should get home before it gets dark," he advised her. "You don't want anymore trouble."

"They won't be anymore trouble for me for a while," she said almost indifferently. "Thanks to you," she added.

It was Snape's turn to shrug. "What's your name?" he asked, curious about the fact that there was evidently a wizard family in the area.

"Rowan," she answered proudly. "Rowan Radcliffe." Her quick, dark eyes looked into his face without fear. Evidently, as her liberator, he did not pose a threat in her mind.

If only things were as simple as an eight-year-old saw them. The girl's surname had instantly rung familiar. If he wasn't mistaken, her father was Rupert Radcliffe, and her family was from a very old, pure wizard line, but had not yet thrown their lot in with the Dark Lord. It might be very useful to know precisely where the family could be found.

In fact, it might be the sort of information that would get Snape off the hook for Malloy's screw up.

"Well, Rowan," Snape said pleasantly, "I think it might be a good idea if I walked you home just to make sure that there isn't any more trouble."

"I told you," she repeated insistently, starting off the opposite way from which Snape had arrived, "they won't give me any more trouble." She sighed abruptly. "I can't wait until I'm older and I can do magic myself when they bother me."

"You know that's still quite a ways off," Snape said conversationally as they walked.

"Only three years," Rowan said optimistically. "Three years until I'm old enough to go to school and learn to do magic myself."

He hated to burst her bubble, but …. "Rowan, you know you won't be able to use magic against them if you're still underage."

She smiled at him. "I'd only get in trouble if I got caught," she said confidently.

"Yes, well the Ministry of Magic monitors younger wizards and witches," he replied. "They'd know if you did something to one of them with a spell immediately."

She wasn't giving in. "I could get them without using a spell," she said, a little impatience in her voice.

"And just how would you do that?" Snape asked, now getting a tad impatient as well.

She actually rolled her eyes. "I'd use a potion," she said back, her tone flippant. "Duh!"

Snape found himself amused again by his diminutive companion. He was beginning to think that she rather reminded him of himself at that age. Cunning and clever, with that raven hair and those dark eyes, she could easily have been his little sister.

Rowan carried on her education of Snape on the subject of potions. "My father says that there are potions that no one can tell are in their drink," she said in an informative tone.

"Your father is quite right," Snape said. "There are some that have no odor, no taste, no color, and yet do terrible things to the person so unlucky as to drink them."

"You know a lot about potions?" Rowan asked, brightening.

"Yes," was all he replied as they approached a group of large houses.

She was obviously impressed. "Cool."

"You live here?" Snape asked, indicating the large homes across the street.

Rowan gestured vaguely at the north end of the street. "Yeah, that one."

Snape decided not to follow her further, just in case one of her parents was around. "Well, Rowan, it's time you ran off home." He would hang back and stick around just long enough to see which address she returned to.

"Yeah, well….bye," she said, now trotting off. She turned and jogged backwards a few paces. "Thank you!" She called before she spun back around and ran for home.

Snape was watching her nonchalantly as he started to walk away, and saw her heading for one of the three houses at the end of the road. He never got a chance to see which set of steps she actually ran up, because at that moment, there was a loud 'pop', and an agitated Malloy sprang up in front of him.

"Where t' bloody 'ell you been, Snape?" he asked tersely.

Snape dodged around the burly Death Eater trying to see which house Rowan had gone into. She was gone.

"You imbecile!" Snape snarled menacingly through clenched teeth. He firmly settled in his mind which poison was most likely going to find its way down Malloy's throat….if he made it through his report back to the Dark Lord, that was.

The scene faded in and out again for a moment, and then here was Snape again, a week later, casually walking up to the park where he could see young Rowan riding her bike. She spotted him watching her after a moment and looked up with pleased surprise.

"Hey," she called, waving to him and jumping off her bike a few yards away. She walked it over to where he waited. "What are you doing here…..oh! I don't know your name," she said as the thought occurred to her.

"My name is Severus," he answered her pleasantly, "and I came back to make sure that those children weren't bothering you again." Ok, so it was only partly true.

She shook her head vigorously with a wide grin spreading across her face. "No," she said, tossing her dark hair back out of her eyes.

There was something about her amused manner that told Snape something had happened since he last saw her.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "What did you do?" he asked with teasing suspicion.

"Well, that Belinda – the one with the curly hair," she said dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, " was really mad that her hand got burned, so a few days later she dumped paint all over me in art class." She lowered her voice even more. "But I got even with her," she said.

Snape leaned down toward her a little and whispered back, "You did? How?"

Rowan looked around furtively. "Promise not to tell?" she asked, still whispering.

"Yes," Snape whispered back, now curious about how his new friend had taken her revenge.

"Well, you know I can't make potions because I'm too young," she explained in a way that said she was making sure he was clear on that point. He nodded and she continued whispering. "That doesn't mean I don't know anything about what goes into some of them."

Snape raised an eyebrow at her.

She glanced around one last time to make sure there was no one to overhear her confession. "I put a little dried dodder in her Coke when she wasn't looking."

"You gave her Devil's guts?" Snape asked, now starting to smile at the aspiring little Potions Mistress. It was another name for the herb and the condition it caused.

"I'll bet she puked for a whole day," Rowan said proudly.

"And I'd be willing to be that the school nurse and her muggle doctors diagnosed her with probable 'food poisoning'?" Snape asked, even though he really didn't need the answer to that particular question.

"Yup." Rowan answered, obviously quite pleased with herself. "They have no idea it was me."

"Yes, well, nevertheless," Snape began with a half-hearted admonishment, "you should be more careful."

"Why?" The girl asked. "I won't get caught if they think it's food poisoning."

"Miss Radcliffe," Snape continued, in a slightly sterner manner, "while the muggle doctors may not have a clue about what really caused that girl's ailment, and the Ministry may not be aware of your…..activities, I would daresay that too many episodes of 'food poisoning' in the bullies that routinely give you trouble my well catch the notice of your parents. I'm sure it's bad enough that some of your classmates already suspect your true nature……."

"Yeah, but no one ever believes them," Rowan interrupted.

"Yes, for the moment," Snape continued. "Just as I am sure that no one believed that a dark wizard in black robes swooped in and saved you from your attackers."

Rowan's eyes went wide for a moment and then narrowed as she scrutinized the man standing before her. "You're not really a dark wizard, are you?" She sounded highly doubtful.

Snape gave her a rare smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Rowan frowned. "Because you're too nice."

Snape threw his head back and laughed, and then addressed the naive witch after a moment. "What makes you so sure, Rowan?"

Her frown deepened, as did her apparent confusion at his questions. Once again, the picture was black and white for the young witch. "Real Dark Wizards don't save little girls from getting beaten up by bullies," she pronounced confidently, finally letting her expression relax.

Snape considered her answer and her vote of confidence for a minute.

Actually, why had he intervened?

He hadn't known who her father was until after he'd rescued her from that gang of muggles. There hadn't been anything to gain by interfering. It was just some long-buried part of him that felt the need to protect one of his own; a part that understood only too well what it was like to be the target of insult and injury. No one had ever been there to step in on his behalf when he'd been beaten up as a child…..he'd learned to defend himself early on, and much more aggressively than his little friend here.

He looked into the eyes of the young witch that were as dark as his own. They could have easily been those of his sister, if he'd ever had a sister, but of course he'd been the last of the Snape line, which his father had pointed out to him and blamed him for nearly every day from the time Snape had been born, until his father's untimely demise.

Now it was his turn to frown. He was obviously feeling some sort of attachment to this child, and although he didn't quite understand it, he knew enough to recognize the longing for there to be someone else out there like him.

A sister.

Family.

Something he'd never had, even when his father had been alive.

"Are you alright?" Rowan had stepped closer and put a hand on his arm. There seemed to be genuine concern in her voice.

Snape nodded, but was unable to answer, that small touch – the tiniest gesture of affection and concern, sealed the deal. He knew he couldn't turn her family in. As a matter of fact, he was now worried that the Dark Lord might find her family without his help, and he found himself wrestling with the foreign sensation of feeling protective of something besides his own hide.

He realized she was still staring at him with her small hand on his arm. "I'm fine," he assured her, " and evidently so are you." He gave her a tiny smile. "I should go," he said quietly, and started to turn away……..

The scene faded again for a moment, and here was the park again a week or so later. Snape sat on the bench watching the girl surreptitiously where she sat alone on a swing, letting her toes drag lazily in the dusty rut worn beneath her from so many feet dragging swinging children to a halt.

He felt that she was safe for now. His story of being unable to find the Radcliffe family had been reasonably convincing to the Dark Lord, and of course he'd been able to occlude Voldemort from seeing any more than he wanted him to see.

Thank Merlin.

Although she was some distance away, it only took a few minutes for the girl to sense that she was being watched, and she looked over her shoulder to where he sat. He couldn't see the smile that spread across her face at this distance, but it was clearly conveyed in the way she sprang off the still-moving swing and ran toward him.

"Severus!" She exclaimed, out of breath, when she made it to a few feet from the bench he sat on.

"Miss Radcliffe," he replied in acknowledgement, smiling slightly when she plopped herself down on the bench next to him. "Are you staying out of trouble?"

"I haven't poisoned anyone this week, if that's what you mean," she said with a grin. She hesitated for just a beat, looking thoughtful, and then spoke again. "I like when you call me that."

"What? Miss Radcliff?" Snape asked her as she sat next to him swinging her feet under the bench and out again repeatedly.

"Yes." She said, contemplating her dusty feet.

"And why is that?" Snape asked curiously.

"Oh, I don't know. I guess you sound like one of my teachers," Rowan said with a shrug, " but I like you better than a lot of my teachers."

Snape felt another unbidden twinge of feeling for the girl next to him. "That's not saying much for the teachers you have," he replied.

She punched him in the arm.

"Stop that," she chided. "Some of my teachers are ok, but I can still like you better. Besides, none of them understand me."

"Ah," Snape said softly, " and I do?"

Rowan nodded emphatically. "'Course. You're wizard, I'm a witch, we both understand potions….. we even look alike," she observed.

Snape frowned a little in mock concentration, as if he were just considering the resemblance for the first time. "You're right," he agreed after a minute.

"Yeah. Same hair, same skin, same eyes….you could even pass for my d…."

"Older brother?" Snape interrupted. True, he was old enough in theory to have an eight year old daughter, but his psyche wasn't ready to deal with anything that remotely resembled feelings of any sort of a paternal nature. He was having all he could do to deal with his odd yet growing fraternal attachment.

Rowan nodded in agreement. "You could be like my older brother. I don't have a real brother, of course….or a sister," she said somewhat dejectedly.

"I was an only child," Snape offered in the spirit of camaraderie that was blossoming on the park bench.

"Really?" Rowan asked with obvious interest.

"Really," Snape affirmed. They spoke for a while about what it was like to wish to have a brother or sister, or even close cousins. Snape was glad to hear that although she was an only child as he had been, that her parents, both still alive, absolutely doted on her, and that she actually admitted to being somewhat spoiled.

At a lull in their conversation, Rowan reluctantly admitted that she probably ought to be heading home. "Mum doesn't like it if I'm late for dinner," she added.

Snape nodded. "I have no wish to make you late for dinner, Miss Radcliff. I should hate to incur your mother's wrath."

Rowan giggled as she hopped off the bench. "Will you come and see me next week, Severus?" She looked and sounded hopeful.

"Would you like me to?" It was obvious that the child would, but a small selfish part of Snape just wanted to hear her say so.

"Duh!" He answer was accompanied by another punch in the arm

"Very well, then," he said rubbing his arm and wincing a little. "I shall return next week, but until then….." he reached into his robes and offered a flat item wrapped in blue twinkling paper to the girl."

"A present? For me?" Rowan took the proffered item and stared, mesmerized at the glittering paper. "Is this a book?"

"Open it and see."

Rowan tore the paper off to find her gift was indeed a book. _An Early Potions Primer_ was printed in silver on a blue cover. She might have stood there staring at her gift even longer if it weren't for the sound of her own name being called in the distance by her mother, who was looking for her. She snapped out of her surprise at the unexpected gift. "I've got to go." She looked back at Snape where he was watching her reaction to the book. "This is the best present I've gotten in forever," she said in earnest.

"Good," He replied, genuinely please that she liked it. Anything else he might have said at that point was cut off by the young witch flinging her arms briefly around his neck.

The hug touched a nerve, but the comment she whispered in his ear before she released him and dashed for home went much deeper. "You'd be a great brother," she said, sounding like she might be about to cry.

He sat there, stunned. She ran off thinking she'd left him sitting on the park bench; she didn't know she left him there falling to pieces.

A rush of thoughts and emotions swept over him like an unexpected wave that leaves one not only chilled and wet, but off balance and in danger of being dragged under. They came at him too fast and furious to sort out, but conflict and anguish bobbed to the surface. Rowan, sister, family, darkness, danger, Voldemort.

What was he doing?

He ran a hand back through his hair as he sat there torn between his fear of the Dark Lord, and his fear for the girl. Here was conflict of epic proportion.

Voldemort, his master, represented a real and profound threat to Rowan's family. If the Dark Lord ever found out Snape knew where the Radcliffe family was, and had kept it hidden, there would be hell to pay. He knew the only way to keep her safe was to never return to see her again, even though he knew it would mean severe disappointment to a lonely and lovely child.

It took him a minute to recognize the sensation of part of his heart breaking. It had been such a long time since anything had even remotely affected him in such a way, that he'd almost forgotten what it felt like. It felt…..

Liberating?

Yes, it felt awful- the thought of losing his new found surrogate sibling made his insides cringe as much as any poison might, but the discovery that he had the ability to feel anything like this after being trapped for so long in the narrow, pinched realm of hate and fear was somehow strangely freeing.

Perhaps he wasn't as dead as he thought. Perhaps he had something to lose after all, and maybe, just maybe, there was a tiny part of his hard, blackened soul that he'd not yet sold to that infernal devil.

He sat there until the sun had disappeared below the horizon, finally making up his mind. As much as he knew Rowan would be disappointed, and as much as the most selfish parts of him wanted to continue to be in her life, he knew that he had to let her go.

She had, however, given him a gift far greater than he had given her. She'd caused him to see that he was not completely lost; not completely without hope. How did you ever repay someone for that gift?

He rose from the bench. He would come back once more, and once more only. He couldn't tell her much, but he could at least tell her the reason he wouldn't be back wasn't because of her. At least he could try to spare her that hurt.


End file.
